


Half Way

by alvares715



Series: Half Way - All the Way [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Miraculous Ladybug Love Square, Original Kwamis, Reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:22:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 35
Words: 62,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27303361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alvares715/pseuds/alvares715
Summary: Marinette finally confesses her feelings to Adrien. And that leads to a series of events that no one expected.Set after season three.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Half Way - All the Way [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2194014
Comments: 340
Kudos: 417





	1. An Overdue Confession and An Echo

Today was the day. The day that Marinette would finally confess her feelings to Adrien. She had been in love with him for an entire year now and she couldn't wait any longer. 

"I can do this... I can do this..." she repeated to herself as she walked to school. 

"I'm so proud of you Marinette," her kwami Tikki said from her purse.

"Don't be proud of me yet, I still have to go through with it. Hopefully I don't chicken out again."

"I have faith in you. I know you can do it!" Tikki exclaimed. 

"Thanks Tikki," Marinette said as she closed her purse and climbed up the front steps of the building. 

The new school year had started just a few weeks ago. Marinette and Adrien were in the same class again. And he sat right in front of her, giving her the opportunity to stare at his beautiful blonde hair for a large part of the day.

But it wasn't his good looks that originally captured her attention. She fell in love with his generous heart. 

Once inside the courtyard of the school Marinette continued repeating her mantra in her head. She almost reached her best friend Alya when a voice behind her caused her to jump.

"Hey Marinette."

She spun around and there he was. Adrien Agreste. 

An unintelligible squealing noise escaped from her lips. 

His face twisted up in confusion. "Are... you okay? he asked hesitantly. 

"Ha! Me? Course of I'm fine," Marinette sputtered out. "How are thew? I mean, how are things or how are you?"

Adrien blinked at her. "I'm fine." He paused for a second. "Well I'll see you in class," he said, walking away. 

"Class yes!" she called out after him. 

When he was gone she covered her face with her hands. She peeked out to look down at her purse. "This is going to be a nightmare," she mumbled to Tikki.

************************************

Marinette knew that her heart would always belong to Adrien the way things were going. Holding on to the hope that the two of them would eventually be together was keeping her stuck. 

She had tried to forget about him all summer long. And she did that by hanging out with Luka Couffaine. He was such a great guy, sweet and funny, and patient and understanding. But no matter how wonderful he was, she couldn't stop thinking about Adrien. 

Especially after she found out that Adrien and Kagami weren't dating. It sure seemed like the two were heading for a relationship. But then all of a sudden it was over. Marinette had no idea what happened, and neither did anyone else. The only people that knew were Adrien and Kagami. 

But Marinette finally reached the point where she couldn't keep hoping. She needed to know if a romantic relationship was a real possibility. Either Adrien wanted to date her, or he didn't. She couldn't put her life on hold anymore. 

Before she knew it the final bell rang, signaling the end of their last class. This was it. Marinette was going to confess to Adrien no matter how awkward it would be. No matter how much she stuttered. This was it. Today was the day. 

Slight panic set in as she approached Adrien, who was gathering up his things. 

"Adrien?" She mentally gave herself a high-five. After all, an entire word came out correctly. She could do this. 

He turned towards her with that megawatt smile of his. "Yes Marinette?"

Maybe not.

"Uh... uh..." she started. 

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Is everything okay?"

She nodded. "I, uh... I wanted to... t... talk to you... about something."

He smiled again, encouraging her to continue. 

Marinette looked around. They were the only ones left in the classroom. Now was the time. 

"Th... the thing is..." She paused as she felt her face turning red.

Ladybug, Ladybug, Ladybug. She was Ladybug. A superhero that fought against super villians. She could easily do this.

"I'm in love with you."

The words were out. Marinette looked down at her feet, not daring to meet Adrien's gaze any longer. 

"I'm in love with you and I wanted to know if you would be interested in going out with me sometime." The words were flowing and she wasn't even stuttering. "I know that you were in love with Kagami, but it seems like you two aren't together anymore."

She finally gathered up enough courage to look at him again. He was looking down at his sneakers. 

"It's totally fine if you're not interested," she continued. "I just figured that I'd ask. That's all."

Silence. 

As the seconds ticked by Marinette realized that his silence was his way of saying no. She tried to maintain her composure as tears came to her eyes. 

"It's okay," she said strained. "It's okay that you don't feel the same way. I just... wanted you to know." She quickly reached up and wiped a tear away. "Well anyway, I'm going to leave now."

With that she turned and walked out of the classroom, not looking back. 

Adrien remained where he was.

After a moment his kwami Plagg popped out of his shirt. "Way to go, Casanova. You just broke Marinette's heart. Again."

"I know," he sighed. "I feel awful."

"You could have at least said something to her," Plagg chastised. 

"I didn't know what to say! I was too surprised. I mean, I had no idea that she was in love with me."

Plagg scoffed. "You've been so distracted by your crush on Ladybug that you can't even see what's right in front of your face."

Adrien looked down again. His kwami was right. He obviously hadn't been paying much attention to the people closest to him. He considered Marinette to be one of his best friends, and he never realized her true feelings. How long had she been in love with him?

Ladybug. He was in love with her for so long. But he knew that he needed to get over her.

And he had tried. Mainly by hanging out with Kagami. But once she realized that he was still in love with someone else, things were over between them. 

Ever since then, Adrien felt lost. He didn't know what to do. Maybe he needed to stop thinking about Ladybug and start focusing on his friends more. He obviously could be doing better in that area of his life. 

"Alright Plagg, I get it. Let's go home," he finally said. 

The kwami flew into his shirt and disappeared. Then Adrien went to the hallway and descended the stairs. Once he was outside he looked down the street towards Marinette's house, which was right next door to the school. 

His heart sank thinking about her and how upset she must be. Reluctantly he climbed into the waiting town car parked at the curb and went home. 

************************************

Sleep eluded Adrien that night as he tried to fall asleep. But for the first time in a long time, his thoughts weren't preoccupied with Ladybug. They were preoccupied with Marinette Dupain-Cheng. 

She was one of his closest friends. But now that he stopped and thought about it, he realized that he didn't actually know that much about her.

Marinette was beautiful, that was obvious. And she loved fashion, but everyone knew that.

And he had thought that she was in love with Luka because they were always hanging out with each other. It sure seemed like Luka was romantically interested in her. But maybe it was one of those one-sided relationships, where one person is in love but the other person isn't. 

Just like the relationship that Adrien had with Ladybug. 

And now, the relationship that Adrien had with Marinette. Although he was on the opposite side of the dynamic this time.

He suddenly couldn't breathe. He knew exactly what Marinette must have been feeling at the moment, because he had been through the exact same thing. 

Being rejected by the one you love most is a feeling that he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy.

And now he had done that to Marinette.

The sweet girl who did nothing but care about everyone around her.

The girl who he had left standing in front of him, waiting for a reply that never came.

The girl who must have felt so foolish at her most vulnerable moment.

How could he have done that to her? He hurt her more in a few seconds than Ladybug had hurt him over the last year. At least Ladybug had the decency to explain why she rejected his advances. And she did so with compassion and empathy. 

All Marinette had received was the empty echo of silence. 

The night passed by with all these thoughts swirling around Adrien's head. By the time morning came, he knew what he had to do.


	2. Butterflies, Elephants and Secret Identities

Adrien found Marinette sitting at her desk the next morning at school. It was evident that she was trying to avoid eye contact. She didn't look up at him as he took his seat. He couldn't blame her. 

But he needed to speak with her. "Hey Marinette," he said gently. 

Her face was bright red, just like it had been the day before when she confessed. "Hey," she squeaked out, keeping her eyes down. 

"I wanted to apologize about yesterday..."

"It's okay. Don't worry about it," she quickly interrupted.

"Marinette, I..." he trailed off when he saw Nino and Alya walk up.

"How's it going, girl?" Alya asked, sliding into her seat.

"Fine," Marinette replied, not looking at her friend. 

Alya scrunched up her face. She could tell that something was wrong. "Is everything alright?"

Marinette nodded her head.

The redhead wasn't convinced. She glanced over at Adrien, who was still turned towards them with a pained look on his face. 'What's going on?' she silently mouthed to him.

He simply looked at Marinette once again before spinning back around to his desk. Alya narrowed her eyes at him for a second. Then she refocused her attention to the front of the classroom as their teacher Miss Bustier started speaking. 

************************************

Like Adrien expected, Marinette avoided him all day long. Not once did she look him in the eyes.

Instead, he started getting daggers from Alya. Marinette must have told her what happened and she seemed pissed. She didn't say anything though, she just glared at him from afar.

He desperately wanted to talk to Marinette in private but he never got the chance. Not until the end of the day. 

When the final bell rang she quickly got up to leave. Adrien grabbed her hand as she walked down the steps past his desk. "Please Marinette, I need to talk to you."

Alya looked over at them and frowned, but continued on her way out of the classroom. 

Marinette was startled by his touch. "There's nothing to talk about," she insisted, attempting to pull her hand away. 

Adrien held on firmly. "Please?"

She glanced around at the students making their way out of the classroom before she nodded curtly.

Adrien let go of her hand which she immediately pulled back. She stayed in place looking down at the floor until they were alone in the room. 

That's when he stood and moved up to her. "Marinette, I'm really sorry about yesterday. I was a total jerk and I feel horrible."

"You don't have to apologize Adrien. It's not a big deal. I completely understand." She still didn't look at him while she spoke.

"I was just surprised. That's why I didn't say anything," he explained. 

"It's fine, really." She paused momentarily. "I, uh... I should go." She started to turn towards the door.

"Wait!" Adrien protested, causing Marinette to stop. "I wanted to give you the answer to your question."

She finally looked up at him. 

He continued. "I would love to go out with you sometime."

Silence again, but this time it was very different. 

"What are you talking about?" Marinette asked in a whisper.

"You're a great girl Marinette, and I'm saying 'yes' to your question."

She stared at him confused. "You want to go out with me?" 

He nodded. 

"Like on a _date_?" she asked incredulously. 

He nodded again. 

Her expression suddenly changed from confusion to understanding. "Adrien, you don't have to do this. You don't have to say 'yes' just to be nice."

"That's not why I'm saying it," he insisted, moving closer to her. "You're really great Marinette, and I enjoy being around you. I'm saying 'yes' because I want to."

She continued looking at him. "Okay," she finally whispered. 

Adrien gave her a small smile. "Okay."

For a minute neither of them spoke. 

"Well I'm available after school tomorrow if you want to do something then," he suggested. 

Marinette nodded slowly. "Tomorrow's good," she uttered.

"Great," Adrien said, smiling wider.

"I, uh... I guess I'll see you then. Actually, I'll see you for school first," she said, blushing again. "So, uh... bye." 

Adrien watched her walk out the door. "Bye!" he called out after her, but she didn't look back. 

Plagg popped out again. "What are you doing? What about Ladybug?"

"Nothing is ever going to happen between me and Ladybug. I need to move on from her. And besides, Marinette is wonderful. Why shouldn't I give her a chance?"

The kwami sighed. "You better know what you're doing, kid. Otherwise you're going to make an even bigger mess out of this situation."

"Don't worry about it Plagg. And since when are you so concerned with my love life anyway?" Adrien asked, raising his eyebrow at him.

"I'm not concerned. I just don't want to listen to you whine if this turns out bad, that's all," he replied, crossing his tiny arms and turning his face away.

"Sure Plagg, sure," Adrien teased as he picked up his bag and made his way to the door. 

************************************

Adrien had butterflies in his stomach when he arrived to school the next morning. He felt nervous about his date with Marinette, but he didn't understand why. They had been friends for an entire year, so why was he suddenly freaking out about spending some time with her?

She was sitting at her desk again when he got to the classroom. She and Alya were whispering back and forth, but stopped at seeing him. Marinette's face turned red and she looked down. Alya smirked at him.

"Good morning Adrien," Alya sing-songed as he sat down. 

"Hey Alya, hey Marinette," he said.

"Hey," the blunette replied. 

"So are we still on for this afternoon?" Adrien asked. 

"Um, yeah. I mean, if it's okay with you. We can cancel if you want," she babbled.

"No, I don't want to cancel. I'm really looking forward to it."

Alya seemed like she was about to explode from excitement. 

All Marinette did was mumble "Okay."

Adrien smiled at her before spinning around. 

His best friend and seat mate Nino leaned over to him. "So I hear you have a date with Marinette," he whispered. 

"Yeah," Adrien confirmed. "She asked me out and we're meeting up after school today."

"Dude, I already know all the deets. Alya would not stop talking my ear off yesterday. I just wanted to say 'way to go, man.' Marinette's an awesome girl."

"I know," he whispered back before class started. 

************************************

If Adrien had butterflies in his stomach, then Marinette had elephants in hers. She was a wreck all day long. Her nerves overtook her whole body and she could barely focus on anything other than her thoughts about the upcoming date. Before she knew it, school was over. 

"Have fun today," Alya whispered to her as she got up to leave. "Text me later. I need to know everything!" She gave her a wink and then left the classroom with Nino.

Marinette remained in her seat as the other students left too. Adrien turned to her when they were alone. "Are you ready?" he asked. 

"Look Adrien," she started. "You don't have to do this. I understand..."

His face fell slightly. "I already told you, I want to."

"Are you sure?" she asked timidly. 

He smiled. "I'm sure."

Marinette finally relaxed a little and returned the smile. "Okay."

They stood up and walked to the hallway. 

"So, what are we doing for our date?" Adrien asked as they went down the stairs. 

Marinette shook her head. "I don't know. I didn't really plan anything. I mean, I didn't think we'd get this far," she admitted. 

He laughed. "Well, we'll have to figure it out as we go then."

She looked over at him and smiled. 

Once outside, she noticed that his town car wasn't there like usual. "Where's your bodyguard?"

"Oh, I told Nathalie that I had to stay late today to work on a project with a classmate. Which is not _technically_ untrue," he mused. 

Marinette chuckled. "So our date is a project then?"

"Of course!"

She laughed again. "Good to know."

The butterflies disappeared as he listened to her laugh. He couldn't believe that he was already having a good time. "Seriously though," he finally said, "we have about two hours before my bodyguard picks me up."

Marinette nodded and looked around. "So, where do you think we should go?"

"We could go to the park," Adrien suggested. 

"That sounds great."

The two turned and walked side by side as they made their way to the park near the school. They glanced at each other bashfully a couple of times as they went.

Once there, they sat on one of the benches. 

"So, uh..." Marinette started but trailed off. She couldn't think of anything to say.

"Um..." Adrien said, putting his hand to the back of his neck. 

There was an awkward silence. 

Marinette glanced around, desperately trying to think of something to say. But instead she saw something that distracted her.

At the park entrance ten meters away was a little kid, about four or five years old, spinning in circles. His father was busy putting his other child in a stroller and wasn't facing him at the moment. Marinette watched as the boy kept spinning. Losing his balance, he stumbled towards the street.

In a flash she jumped up and ran over to him. She picked him up just as he was about to tumble off of the curb.

"Be careful there, buddy," Marinette said, placing him down. Adrien rushed to her side. 

"Thank you so much," the boy's father gushed at realizing what happened. He kneeled down and hugged his son. "Are you hurt Samuel?"

"No Papa," the boy replied. 

The father continued to offer his thanks to Marinette as he stood back up. 

"It's no problem. I'm just glad that he's not hurt." She looked down at Samuel. "Try not to spin too much next time, okay buddy?"

"I won't, Ladybug," the boy responded, smiling up at her. 

Marinette laughed. "So you think I'm Ladybug, huh?"

"Of course you're Ladybug. You saved me!" he reasoned. 

"Well if I _were_ Ladybug, I wouldn't be able to tell you. It's very important for Ladybug and Chat Noir to protect their secret identities, you know."

The boy nodded in agreement. He was clearly an expert on superheroes. 

"Well, say 'thank you' to the young lady. We need to go home now," the father said, grabbing his son's hand.

"Thank you," Samuel chirped. 

"You're welcome. And remember, I'm _definitely_ not Ladybug," she said, winking at him. 

The boy giggled as his father guided him away.

Marinette turned back to Adrien. "Kids," she said, shrugging.

"That was incredible Marinette," Adrien gushed. 

Her eyes widened. "Oh, uh..." she stammered as her cheeks blushed. "It was nothing. Anyone would have done it." She turned to go back into the park.

Adrien followed behind, keeping his eyes on her. He never realized how amazing she was.


	3. A Panicked Phone Call and Some Leftovers

Adrien thought about the date all evening when he got back home. 

After going back to the park they ended up just talking the whole time. There were no awkward moments, no lags in the conversation, no stuttering. Just two people who were enjoying each other's company. 

He felt very disappointed when he had to leave to meet his bodyguard. 

And he was disappointed again the next morning when he got to class. Marinette wasn't in her seat.

He reluctantly sat down and took his books out. A few minutes later Alya and Nino came in. 

"Soooo, how was the date?" Nino asked, wiggling his eyebrows at his best friend. 

Adrien chuckled. "It was really nice," he replied, earning a muffled squeal from Alya. He was about to ask them if they had seen Marinette but class started before he got the chance.

Ten minutes went by, and still no sign of her. He started tapping his foot on the floor as he got more and more impatient. Where was she? Hopefully there was nothing wrong.

Relief washed over him when Marinette appeared at the door and quietly made her way to her seat. Once she was seated Adrien turned around and smiled at her. She blushed and returned the smile before looking at the teacher. 

As soon as class was over Adrien turned back to her. "Hey Marinette, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine. I just overslept again. You know me," she said, packing up her school bag. 

Alya quickly pulled Nino away and out of the classroom, letting Adrien and Marinette have some privacy. 

"I should have known," Adrien teased as he stood up.

Marinette laughed before standing up herself. She looked at him. "Adrien, I wanted to thank you for hanging out with me yesterday. It was really sweet of you, and I had a great time."

"Me too," he replied. They started walking out of the classroom. "So, uh... I'm busy after school today and tomorrow. Would you be available to go out on Saturday?"

Marinette looked at him confused. "You... you want to go out _again_?"

Adrien laughed, thinking that she was joking. But she was serious. 

"Sorry," he muttered before continuing. "Of course I want to go out again."

She sighed. "Adrien, you don't have to..."

"Marinette," he interrupted, "I already told you, I want to. Besides, we didn't get all the work done on our project yet," he said with a grin. "And my father would be _very_ upset if I get a bad grade."

A smile crept its way onto Marinette's lips. "I'm sorry. I just thought... nevermind. Yes, I'm available on Saturday," she said, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. 

Adrien smiled. "Great. I have a photoshoot in the morning but after that I'm free."

Marinette nodded. "Well think about what you'd like to do. You could come over to my place. Or we could see a movie or something."

"A movie sounds good. I don't get to see many."

"Alright, let's do that. You can pick which one we see... as long as it's not a scary movie," she added, giggling. 

They entered the chemistry lab. "That sounds great Marinette," Adrien said. 

"Just let me know what time you want to meet up," she commented as she walked off to her table.

He watched her go. Ugh, why did her table have to be so far away from his?

************************************

It felt like an eternity before Saturday night rolled around. At least for Adrien. All of his lessons and his photoshoot dragged on. He was smiling ear to ear when it was finally time to go to Marinette's house.

For Marinette, Saturday night came way too fast. She had a date, a _real_ date this time, with Adrien Agreste. The boy that she had been in love with for so long. What was she going to wear? What was she going to say?

Just minutes before Adrien was supposed to arrive Marinette called Alya in a panic.

"I can't do this," she cried as soon as her friend picked up the phone. 

"Relax girl! Everything is going to be fine. You're going on a date with _Adrien._ You've been dreaming about this for a whole year. And now it's finally happening!"

"But he's only going out with me because he's a nice guy and he doesn't want to hurt my feelings," she argued. 

"Uh uh, no way. Don't you dare think that! If he was just being nice then he never would have asked you out on a second date. Come on girl, admit it to yourself. Adrien might actually like you back!"

Marinette groaned. "Thanks a lot Alya. Like I wasn't nervous enough already? Now I'm going to have those thoughts in my head all night."

The doorbell rang.

"Oh my gosh Alya, he's here!" Marinette continued. "What do I do?"

"Um, answer the door?" she deadpanned. 

The girl groaned again. "I'll call you later," she mumbled before hanging up. 

Marinette went downstairs to find her parents Sabine and Tom talking with Adrien in the living room.

"We're going to see a movie tonight," she overheard Adrien explain to them. 

"Oh, and are the rest of your friends meeting you there?" Sabine asked. 

"Actually, just Marinette and I are going," he said, putting his hand to the back of his head. 

"It's a project for school," Marinette said quickly, moving up to them.

Tom and Sabine exchanged glances.

"Of course, a school project," Tom murmured, trying to contain his laughter. "We had a bunch of those when we were younger, didn't we dear?" he asked his wife. 

Marinette felt her face burning up. "Well we should really get going," she said. "We don't want to be late."

Adrien nodded at her, smiling. He turned back to her parents. "It was nice to see you again Mrs Cheng, Mr Dupain."

"It was nice to see you too. You kids have fun!" Sabine replied as they went down the stairs. 

Once outside Marinette breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry about that."

"No it's okay. I think you're parents are great."

Marinette smiled at him but didn't say anything. 

Adrien got caught up in her gaze for a moment. She was so beautiful when she smiled like that.

"Well, um..." he muttered, trying to regain his focus. "Shall we go?"

She nodded. 

The two talked as they strolled side by side to the theaters, about a ten minute walk. 

"What's with the sweatshirt?" Marinette asked him, noticing that he was wearing a heavy sweater even though it was warm out.

"I try to wear something with a hood whenever I go somewhere crowded without my bodyguard. So people don't recognize me."

"Right, that makes a lot of sense," she remarked.

They kept talking the rest of the way there. After getting their tickets they sat down in the theater. 

"If I recall correctly, the last time we saw a movie together you were wearing your pajamas and a towel on your head," he whispered over to her. 

"Don't remind me!" Marinette pleaded, covering her face with her hands. 

Adrien laughed and reached over, grabbing her hands and pulling them back down. "It was super adorable," he said, leaning towards her. 

Marinette's face flushed pink as she looked at him. 

They stared at each other for a second until she looked down at her hands. Adrien was still holding on to them.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly, letting go and moving back. 

"Oh no, it's okay," she replied, her face burning up again. 

They both sat back and faced the front of the theater. Fortunately for the embarrassed duo, the previews started a moment later. 

************************************

They walked back to Marinette's house when the movie was over. 

"Do you want to come inside and hang out for a little while before your bodyguard comes to pick you up?" Marinette asked.

"Yes!" Adrien replied enthusiastically. 

"Awesome, let's go to the bakery so we can grab a snack," she said, opening the door. 

Now he was even more eager to go in. 

The lights were off inside the bakery since it was closed for the day. But there was just enough daylight coming in through the windows so they could see. All of the remaining food were in a few boxes on the counter. 

Marinette went over to them. "It looks like we have some cookies left. And there's some croissants and baguettes. But sorry, no macarons."

"Why is everything packed up?" Adrien asked. 

"Oh, my father always takes the leftover food to the homeless shelter on Rue Saint-Jacques. Otherwise it just goes to waste," she explained. 

"Wow that's really nice of your family. Maybe I shouldn't take anything."

"No it's okay. These are the leftovers of the leftovers. The stuff that the shelter couldn't take. So you can have as much as you'd like."

"Alright, well I'll take a croissant then," Adrien said happily. 

Marinette grabbed a croissant for him and a madeleine for herself. They both started eating. 

"So..." Adrien said between bites. "I'm free tomorrow night if you want to get together again."

Marinette suddenly choked on the pastry and started coughing. "You... _cough_ ... want to... _cough_ ... go out... _cough_... again?" she asked.

"Of course I want to. We're not done with our project yet, are we?"

"When exactly... _cough_... is this project due?"

Adrien looked down. "Well I originally told Nathalie that it was due on Monday. So I guess then."

"Okay," Marinette said slowly. "I suppose that we should meet up tomorrow. You know, to make sure that it's ready in time."

He looked at her and nodded. "Yeah we should."

She nodded back as Adrien's phone chimed. Tearing his eyes away from Marinette, he checked the message. "My bodyguard is here." He didn't want to leave. 

"Okay. Do you want to come over at the same time tomorrow?"

"Yes," he answered, earning a beautiful smile from her. He _really_ didn't want to leave. 

Adrien walked around the counter and right up to Marinette. Her eyes widened as he wrapped his arms around her in a hug. She cautiously put her arms around him too.

He held on, enjoying the moment. She smelled so nice. Like fresh baked bread and strawberries. Wait, they were inside of a bakery. So maybe just like strawberries. 

After a minute he pulled back to look at her. "Marinette, thank you for tonight."

"You're welcome," she whispered. 

He didn't move. Not until he heard his phone again. "I guess I have to go," he said, disappointed. 

She reached up and pushed the bangs back from her eyes. "It's alright, I'll see you tomorrow."

Adrien nodded. "I can't wait."

Marinette's cheeks blushed as he finally stepped back and left through the door.


	4. Codenames, A Black Cat and A Cure for Stuttering

Adrien arrived at Marinette's house at the same time on the following day. She quickly rushed him out, trying to avoid more questions from her parents.

"I thought that we could go to the Musée D'Orsay tonight. There's a new exhibit," Adrien suggested. 

"That sounds wonderful."

He smiled. It was crazy, but he had missed her so much. They had just seen each other the night before. But all day long he was restless, eagerly awaiting the moment they would be together again. 

"We'll have to take the train," Marinette continued. "It's too far to walk."

"Yeah, that's fine. I'll just put my hood on."

Marinette laughed. "We definitely don't want the crazy fangirls seeing you. I mean, you're already stuck with me, I don't think you could handle any more."

Adrien looked at her fondly before stepping up to her. "You know that you're my favorite fangirl," he said, putting his hand to her face. 

She blushed as he rubbed his thumb across her cheek. Clearing her throat, she squeaked out "We should get going."

His face fell slightly as he stepped back. She still seemed uncomfortable around him, and he hated that. He would need to think of something to make her feel more at ease.

The two turned and walked to the nearest train station. Adrien put his hood on as they got to the platform. 

"So, should I give you a codename since you're incognito?" Marinette teased.

Adrien laughed. "I think that's a great idea!" he said as they boarded the train and sat down. 

"Hmmm... let me think," she said, tapping her finger against her lips.

Adrien glanced down. Those lips of hers looked so nice. For a split second he wondered what they felt like. 

"How about Griffin?" she suggested. 

He smiled. "I like it."

She nodded smugly.

"Alright, now I have to come up with a codename for you," Adrien continued. 

"For me? I don't need a codename!" she protested as she laughed. 

"Yes you do! It's not fair that I get one and you don't," he reasoned. 

Marinette sighed. "Alright, go ahead."

Adrien looked up, thinking. After a few moments a big smile crossed his face. "I got it, and it's perfect for you."

"Let me hear it," she said hesitantly. 

"Princess!" he announced. 

She looked at him like he was crazy. "Seriously? Princess? I'm not really a 'princess' type of girl."

"Of course you are. You're beautiful and sweet, just like a princess."

"What?" she exclaimed, blushing. "No I'm not!"

"Yes you are," he insisted, leaning towards her. 

She blushed more before standing up. "Come on _Griffin_ , this is our stop."

Adrien quickly followed her out of the train and they walked the rest of the way to the museum. 

After buying their tickets and going up to the second floor, they found the exhibit on Art Nouveau.

There were paintings, posters, sculptures and even furniture in the collection. Adrien and Marinette slowly walked around as they examined the work.

"Are you sure that you're not too hot in that sweatshirt?" she asked. 

"No, I'm fine. You get used to it after a while," he explained. 

They made their way to a room full of posters. Coming upon a famous one, Marinette stopped and smiled brightly. 

The small plaque next to it revealed its name and artist.

**Tournée du Chat Noir de Rodolphe Salis** by Théophile Steinlen.

She took a step closer as she admired the poster. Noticing her interest, Adrien stopped next to her. "You seem to like this one."

"Yeah," she said, not taking her eyes off of the artwork. Tilting her head slightly, she smiled even more at the black cat looking back at her. 

After a minute she finally moved on to the next poster.

Adrien followed her. "So, are you a big fan of cats?"

She laughed. "Some of them. I really like animals and I always wished that I could have a pet, but my parents never let me. It's not a good idea to have animals around when you live in a bakery."

"I guess that's understandable," he said as they walked to the next room.

"But once I move out and have my own place, I'm finally going to get the hamster that I've always wanted."

Adrien stopped dead in his tracks. Marinette wanted a hamster? That's the pet that he had wanted. What were the odds of that?

Marinette turned back to him once she noticed that he wasn't beside her anymore. "Is everything okay... Griffin?" she asked, giggling. 

"Yes," he said breathlessly. "Everything's perfect." Absolutely perfect. 

She smiled as he caught up with her again. 

************************************

After seeing the exhibit, they took the train back to Marinette's house. She invited him inside just like the night before. 

The lights were off again but there were no boxes of food on the counter in the bakery.

"I guess my father's not back from the shelter yet," Marinette said apologetically.

"It's no problem Princess," Adrien said, and he meant it. The food was a bonus, he really just wanted to spend more time with her.

She laughed. "I'm still not used to that codename yet."

"Well get used to it," he demanded playfully. "That's your name forever now."

She smiled again and paused for a moment before speaking again. "Adrien, thank you so much for hanging out with me. That was really, really nice of you. And I enjoyed every second of it."

"You don't have to thank me Marinette. I'm looking forward to when we go out again."

Her face fell. "But... our project is due tomorrow. There's no reason for us to get together anymore."

Adrien's face fell too. "You think our fake project is the reason that we keep going out?"

"Well, I mean... I'm sure you wanted an excuse to get out of your house. You don't get that chance a lot..."

Adrien shook his head slightly as he listened to her. Is that what she really thought? That he was just using her as an excuse?

"Marinette," he interrupted, moving close to her. "I like you."

"Yeah, I know. You're really sweet to have done this for me..."

"No, I _like_ you."

She blinked up at him. "As a friend, you mean?"

Adrien shook his head. "No," he whispered. He slowly leaned in and closed his eyes as he pressed his lips against hers. 

After a few seconds he pulled back. 

Marinette seemed dazed as she opened her eyes. "Andrieh, didn't have this doing... I mean... not do... mean I... Adrithis..."

He chuckled. "Not this again," he said, teasingly. 

"This and... meaning... have to I..."

Adrien listened to her for a minute amused before he thought of something. He leaned in and kissed her again. This time it lasted longer. Then he pulled back. 

"Adrien, you don't have to do this," Marinette said before stopping from surprise. "Oh, I can talk again," she mumbled. 

"I guess we know the trick now."

She nodded. "Yeah. I just have to confess my love for you, or you have to kiss me. That seems easy enough."

He smiled wider. They both remained silent for a minute before Adrien spoke. "So uh... I was wondering... if uh... if you'd like to be my girlfriend?"

Marinette's eyes widened. "Really?" she asked hesitantly. 

Adrien nodded and tipped his head forward so his forehead was resting against hers.

She smiled at him. "Yes," she whispered. 

Reaching up, he cupped her cheek with his hand before kissing her again. This time she wrapped her arms around his neck. 

They stayed there kissing until the noise of the door opening caused them to jump apart.

"Oh sorry sweetie!" Tom announced as he walked in, carrying a few boxes of food. "I didn't know you two were here." He laughed. "Seems like the school project is going well!"

"Papa!" Marinette objected, her face burning up from embarrassment. Even the tips of Adrien's ears were becoming red.

"Sorry, sorry! I'll leave you alone." Tom placed the boxes on the counter and turned to go upstairs. "Help yourself to the food," he said, leaving. 

Marinette looked over at Adrien when her father was gone. "I'm so sorry Adrien."

"No it's okay," he replied, putting his hand to the back of his head. "At least he wasn't mad."

She nodded. "Yeah I guess it could have been much worse..."

Adrien's phone chimed. He grabbed it and checked the message. "I have to go," he said, looking back at her. 

"Right, of course. I uh... hope you have a good night."

"You too," he said softly. Then he moved closer and kissed her again. 

Breaking apart, he gazed into her eyes. "Bye Marinette."

"Bye Adrien," she said, gazing back. 

He slowly stepped away and went out the door. 

The girl he left behind melted down to the floor. 


	5. A Really Good Mood and A Really Bad Breakfast

The huge grin on Adrien's face disappeared when he got back to his house and went to his room. As soon as he closed the door, Plagg flew out and glared at him. 

"Why are you asking Marinette to be your girlfriend when you're not even in love with her?" the kwami demanded. 

"Give me a break, Plagg," Adrien groaned. "Marinette's amazing, and I really like her. Why shouldn't we date?"

"Because you still have feelings for Ladybug?"

"I'm getting over her though. I barely think about her anymore."

"That's only because you haven't seen her too much lately. What's going to happen tonight when you go on patrol and Ladybug smiles at you? I doubt that you'll be thinking of Marinette then," Plagg said. 

"Look, I'm just trying to move on," Adrien grumbled as he walked over to his computer desk.

Picking up his trash can, he started going around the room. He collected all the pictures of Ladybug that he had hidden in various places and put them into the trash as he went.

When he was done with that, he turned on his computer and pulled up Instagram. Scrolling through his account, he found the picture he was looking for. 

It was him and Marinette. His arm was around her shoulder and she was holding up a peace sign. He took the picture months ago when he ran into her before a photoshoot at the park. She was so cute with that little blush on her cheeks. 

After printing the picture out, he propped it up against the corner of the computer screen and leaned back in his chair, smiling at it.

He continued staring at the picture until Plagg's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"You're going to be late, you know."

Adrien jumped up. He had completely lost track of time. "Plagg, claws out!" he shouted, transforming into Chat Noir. 

************************************

Ugh, Ladybug was not going to be happy. Chat Noir hurried to their meeting spot, but he was already running late. And Ladybug was not a fan of tardiness. 

Reaching the top of the Eiffel Tower, Chat Noir landed beside her. 

"Hey Chat," the red and black spotted superhero said, smiling over at him.

"Hey Ladybug, sorry I'm late," he apologized. 

Her smile grew wider. "Don't worry about it."

He couldn't believe it. She wasn't mad at all. "So, do you want to take the east side again tonight? And I'll take the west side?" She always wanted the east side for some reason. 

"It doesn't matter. Why don't you pick," Ladybug offered. 

Boy, was she in a good mood. 

"I'll take the east side if that's okay with you." A certain girl's house was on the east side. 

"Yes of course. I'll meet you back here soon Kitty," she sing-songed before taking out her yo-yo and swinging off.

Chat Noir watched her go. After a second he shook his head and took his baton from his lower back before jumping down the tower.

He catapulted across the rooftops of Paris. His heart rate quickened as he got closer to Marinette's house. Maybe he would be lucky enough to see her on her balcony. 

Nope, no such luck. And the lights were off in her bedroom. She must be asleep already. He sighed as he continued on his route.

Like usual, there was nothing going on around the city so he was back at the Eiffel Tower within half an hour.

Ladybug arrived a minute later. "Anything?" she asked.

" _ Fur _ -tunately there's nothing," he replied. 

She put her arm across her stomach as she giggled. 

Chat Noir raised his eyebrows. Ladybug was laughing at his pun. She was  _ really  _ in a good mood. "What's going on with you today?" he asked her. "You seem so... happy."

She looked at him. "Well that's because I am happy," she replied, smiling again. 

"Any particular reason why?"

Ladybug blinked. "Uh... no. No reason. I'm just uh... having a good day, that's all."

He smiled. "I'm having a pretty good day too."

She nodded. "I'm glad."

They smiled at each other for a moment. 

"Well I'll be off then," Chat Noir said. "I'll see you next time." He put two fingers to his forehead and saluted, giving his trademark farewell.

"Bye!" she called out after him, waving as he left.

************************************

Monday morning. Monday mornings meant school. And school meant seeing Marinette. Monday mornings were the best.

But first Adrien had to get through breakfast. 

He was more than a little shocked to see his father sitting at the dining room table that morning. Gabriel Agreste rarely ate any meal at the table, let alone breakfast. He usually ate in his office, too busy with work to bother eating with his son.

Adrien was nervous as he sat down. He knew that he had to tell his father about his new relationship with Marinette, but he hadn't planned on having to tell him so soon. 

His father wasn't exactly the most accepting person in the world. It was no secret that he disapproved of most of Adrien's friends from school, which included Marinette. He seemed to think that they were a bad influence on him. 

How was he going to react to the news? Would he be happy for him? Doubtful. Would he be angry? Much more likely. Would he care at all? Definitely. 

He would definitely care a lot. With Adrien being a 'reflection' of him and his company, there was no way he wouldn't have an opinion. And a strong one at that.

Adrien pushed the food around his plate as he tried to gather up enough courage to speak.

Surprisingly his father spoke first. 

"Nathalie tells me that you've been working on a school project lately," Gabriel said. 

"Uh yes... a _ project for school _ ," he emphasized. Wow, that didn't sound suspicious or anything. "It's... due today," he continued. 

"Good. Now you can stay home in the evenings like you're supposed to. I don't like you going out everyday."

"Well it wasn't everyday," Adrien mumbled back. 

"It was enough," his father said sternly. "You should be home where you're safe."

Adrien looked down at his plate. Now was definitely not the time to bring up his relationship. He would have to wait until his father cooled off a little. 

The rest of the meal went by in silence. After a few bites of food, Adrien got up and went outside where his bodyguard was waiting for him. 

As he rode along to school, Adrien started thinking. How was he going to be a good boyfriend if he was never allowed outside of his own house? If he couldn't take her on dates? If they couldn't spend time together?

It was hard enough finding excuses and sneaking out to fulfill his duties as Chat Noir. Now things would be even more complicated. 

He would have to come up with something. Another school project or a new activity. Something that would let him have time with Marinette. Of course he could always see her at school, but they needed more. They needed time for just the two of them. 

He tried to push all those negative thoughts from his head as the car pulled up to the building. Now was a time for happiness. He was going to see his girlfriend. His  _ wonderful _ girlfriend. 

Exiting the town car, he gave a quick 'thanks' to his bodyguard. Then he ran inside and up the stairs to their classroom.

And there she was, beautiful sweet Marinette, sitting in her seat and talking with Alya and Nino. Everything was so much better all of a sudden.

As he came into the room they made eye contact. She smiled and blushed as he moved towards her.

Noticing her stare, Alya looked over at him too. She silently clapped her hands together in excitement.

Adrien walked up beside Marinette's desk and held his hand out to her. She slowly placed her hand in his and let him guide her to her feet. Once she was standing, he leaned in and kissed her.

Nino chuckled and Alya squealed as they witnessed the kiss.

Breaking away, Adrien gazed into Marinette's eyes. "I missed you," he whispered. 

"I missed you too," she replied, putting her other hand to his face. 

He couldn't help it. He needed another kiss, so he leaned in and pressed his lips into hers again. 

After a minute, Nino spoke up. "Alright you lovedudes, I think that's enough PDA for now. You don't want Miss Bustier to catch you two sucking face, do you?"

Alya glared at her boyfriend as the new couple separated, both slightly embarrassed. "Sorry," Adrien muttered.

The two sat down in their seats, with Adrien turning around to face Marinette. They started talking as other students made their way in.

"What did your parents say after I left last night?" Adrien asked her.

"Oh," she said, blushing again. "They, uh... kind of knew about my crush on you, so they were really excited."

Adrien laughed. "That's awesome."

"Yeah it is. Did you tell your father?" she asked. 

His face fell. "No I didn't. Not yet."

She slowly nodded. 

"But I will, real soon," he assured her.

She nodded again, giving him a small smile. "Do you know when you can go out again?"

Adrien sighed. "I have no idea. Now that our 'project' is over I don't know how to explain why I'm going out."

Marinette looked at him confused. "But once your father finds out that we're dating, you won't need to explain anything."

"I just..." he started. He really didn't want to say the next few words. But he wasn't going to lie to her. "I just don't know how he'll take the news. He might not... approve of our relationship."

The smile disappeared from her face. "Oh," she said, looking down at her desk.

His heart sank. He couldn't stand seeing Marinette upset. She was too wonderful.

"Marinette," he said, causing the girl to look at him again. "You're _ really _ important to me. We'll figure something out, okay?"

"Okay," she whispered.

The conversation ended as Miss Bustier began her lesson. 


	6. A High Percentage, A Busy Weekend and Strawberries

Who would have thought that a simple act of holding hands would cause such an uproar?

Because that's exactly what happened.

The bell rang, signaling the end of Miss Bustier's class. Adrien packed up his things and stood up before moving next to Marinette. Once she was ready, he offered his hand out for her to take. She very happily accepted it.

A high pitched scream resounded through the room. "Are you two dating?" Rose screeched at seeing them.

Everyone in class stopped what they were doing and looked at Adrien and Marinette. 

"Uh... yes we are," Adrien admitted. 

The room erupted. Mostly with screams of excitement. There was, however, one scream of outrage too.

"Adrikins you can't possibly be serious," Chloé demanded. "This is some sick joke, right? You can't be dating _her_!"

"It's not a joke Chloé. Me and Marinette are dating. And as my oldest friend I would expect you to be happy for us," Adrien said to the blonde.

Chloé's eye twitched as she glared at him. "This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!" she screamed, storming out of the room. Her best friend Sabrina was right on her heels. 

Adrien and Marinette were pulled away from each other as the rest of the class took turns offering their congratulations. 

"Way to go man. Marinette is so hot," Kim said, patting Adrien on the back.

"You're really lucky," Nathaniel chimed in. 

"Yeah," Ivan said simply.

"I offer my congratulations," Max said. "You and Marinette are very compatible. There's a ninety-four point seven percent chance that your relationship will be successful."

"Uh, thanks," Adrien replied, unsure of how to respond. 

The girls surrounded Marinette and took turns embracing her. 

"I'm so happy for you!" Rose squealed.

"Totally awesome," Juleka added.

"You two make such a cute couple," Mylène said.

Alix came over and fist bumped her. "Congrats Marinette."

"Thanks," the girl replied. "You guys are the best."

"Alright students," Miss Bustier finally interrupted. "I know you're all very excited for your friends but you need to go to your next class. Mrs Mandeleiev will not be happy if everyone is late."

"Yes Miss Bustier," they said. 

Adrien turned back to Marinette and held out his hand again. She placed her hand in his and they walked together to their next class. 

************************************

All week long Adrien and Marinette were inseparable at school. And in the evenings they talked on the phone and texted each other. 

Friday afternoon after their last class, Adrien pulled Marinette into an empty classroom and quickly kissed her. 

He wanted as much time as he could get. They wouldn't have the chance to see each other again for two whole days. 

And he couldn't get enough of her sweet lips on his. Marinette finally had to push him away. "Adrien," she said laughing. "Your bodyguard is going to be super mad if you don't get out there soon."

"I don't care," he said before leaning in and kissing her again.

Once more she had to push him back. "I don't want you getting into trouble!"

"You're too wonderful," he sighed, pushing the hair away from her eyes. 

"It's only two days. And we'll talk each day. It will be Monday morning before you know it."

"I know, I know. I'll just miss you so much."

"You're sweet," she whispered before giving him a quick kiss. "Come on, I'll walk you outside."

Marinette grabbed his hand and guided him to the courtyard. They promptly let go of each other at reaching the door. They couldn't risk his bodyguard seeing them as a couple. Adrien still hadn't broken the news to his father. 

At the bottom of the steps, Marinette waved as she turned to head home. After watching her for a moment, Adrien reluctantly climbed inside the town car. 

************************************

That evening there was an akuma attack. Unfortunately it started right at the time that Adrien usually called Marinette. After getting the alert, he sent her a quick text.

**I'm really sorry Princess but I won't be able to call you tonight. I have an extended piano lesson.**

A minute later he received her reply.

**It's okay, I'll talk to you tomorrow. Have a great lesson!**

Ugh, he hated lying to her. But it had to be done. No one could know that he was Chat Noir, not even the person he cared about the most. 

Adrien transformed and took off for the scene. 

************************************

Chat Noir had trouble focusing during the battle. His mind kept going back to Marinette and how he was missing his time to talk with her.

Luckily Ladybug was able to handle the villain on her own and she successfully captured and purified the akuma.

Once Ladybug spoke with the victim and helped him up, she made her way over to Chat Noir. 

He braced himself for some strong words.

"Chat Noir, is everything okay? You're acting strange tonight."

He couldn't believe it. She wasn't annoyed with him. If anything, she seemed really concerned.

"I'm sorry, I'm just a little upset. I was supposed to be doing something important tonight and now that's ruined because of the attack," he explained. 

Ladybug nodded sympathetically. "I'm so sorry Kitty. I know how difficult it is to balance our real lives and our superhero responsibilities. I struggle with it too. I'm sorry your night was ruined." She went up and hugged him.

He hugged her back until her earrings started beeping. "You have to go," he said, breaking away from her.

"Are you going to be alright?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I promise."

She nodded again. "I'll see you next time Kitty."

Chat Noir watched her as she flew off. He sighed and looked around. The scene was back to normal and everyone had left. It was time for him to go home too.

But not before he took a little detour.

His heart skipped a beat when he saw the lights on inside of Marinette's room. Landing on the building across the street from her house, he looked through the windows. 

He scanned the room for a minute but didn't see her. Suddenly she came into view. She was wearing her pajamas and went over to her computer desk, which was covered with papers and notebooks. She must have been writing something. Or maybe sketching something. After all, she was super into fashion and was always designing things.

But she went over and turned off the light that was on the desk. Obviously she was getting ready to go to bed. 

Chat Noir needed to leave. The last thing he wanted to do was stay there too long and cross into creepy territory.

Within minutes he was home. After detransforming he changed into his pajamas, turned off the lights and plopped down into his bed.

He drifted off to sleep with thoughts of a certain girl in his head.

************************************

The weekend was horrible. 

Adrien had a photoshoot first thing Saturday morning. Then after a quick lunch he had an interview with a local magazine. Getting back home, it was time for his Chinese lesson. As soon as that was over he was whisked away to a dinner event downtown.

He texted Marinette throughout the day but it was always an apology for why he couldn't call her. 

And Sunday wasn't any better.

In the morning his tailor came over to the house to measure him for a new suit. Then he had a piano lesson. A real one this time. That was followed by lunch and a trip back downtown to a recording studio so he could finish recording some lines for the Gabriel Agreste brand's next radio ad campaign. 

When he got back home it was time for dinner. Like usual his father wasn't joining him, but Adrien didn't care at the moment. He was too frustrated that he didn't have time to talk to Marinette all weekend.

But it was okay, he'd just take a quick shower and then call her. He'd be hearing her sweet voice real soon. 

He shoved a few bites of food into his mouth and took off for his bedroom.

Once out of the shower he happily sat down at his computer desk and smiled at their photo. He finally had time to call Marinette. 

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Plagg asked, flying over. 

Adrien looked at him. "What?"

The kwami sighed. "It's Sunday night, you have patrol. And you're running late. Again."

Adrien groaned and lowered his head down to the desk, making a thumping noise as he hit it. "Ow," he complained, keeping his head down. 

"It's okay kid, I'm sure Marinette is busy anyway. Her life doesn't revolve around you, you know," Plagg said.

"Thanks a lot," he mumbled before sitting up again. "I'll just call her real quick. We're already late anyway." He picked up his phone and pressed a button. 

He listened to the phone ring. Finally her voice-mail answered. "It's Marinette. Leave a message! Beep!"

Adrien ended the call and sighed. "She's probably mad at me for not calling her all weekend." He looked back over at their picture before sighing again. "Alright, let's get this over with. Plagg, claws out."

Chat Noir went across his room to the open window, jumped up on the ledge and catapulted himself through the sky.

************************************

Ladybug was waiting for him at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Her face fell at seeing his expression.

"Chat, what's wrong?" she asked, moving up to him.

"It's the same thing as before. I had something really important to do this weekend and I never got the chance."

She went over and hugged him. "I'm so sorry," she whispered. 

He hugged her for a minute before pulling away. "Sorry for not being myself lately. I've just been upset."

Ladybug shook her head. "Don't be sorry, everyone goes through bad times. But we're here to support each other." She gave him a small smile. "Do you want to know what I do when I get upset?"

Chat Noir nodded. 

She smiled more. "I close my eyes... close your eyes!" she commanded and he quickly complied. "Then I think about the place where I'm the happiest and I picture it in my mind."

In a flash Chat Noir thought of being with Marinette. 

"Now don't just picture it," Ladybug continued. "Really experience it. Listen for the sounds around you. Smell the scents floating in the air. Feel the ground beneath your feet."

Marinette. The sound of her laughing, the taste of her lips, the smell of her hair. Strawberries. It was amazing, he could actually smell them now.

"Then I stay there for a moment. And it always seems to make me feel better. Even on the bad days."

Chat Noir kept his eyes closed for a minute before opening them. He smiled at Ladybug. 

"Any better?" she asked gently. 

He nodded. "Much better, thank you. Do you want to take the east side tonight?"

"I'll handle patrol tonight. You go do what you need to do," she said. 

"Ladybug, you don't have to do that..." he started protesting. 

"No," she said, interrupting him. "I want to. Now get going before I change my mind!"

He looked at her. He couldn't have asked for a better friend. "Thanks Ladybug," he said smiling and taking off. 


	7. A Homecoming and A Double Threat

No detours that night.

Chat Noir went straight home and detransformed. Then he grabbed his phone and called Marinette.

"It's Marinette. Leave a message! Beep!"

Adrien disconnected the call. Looking around his room his eyes landed on his school bag. He still had homework to do.

He worked at his desk for ten minutes before calling Marinette again.

"It's Marinette. Leave a message! Beep!"

This time he left a message. "Hi Princess, it's me. I wanted to apologize for not calling you this weekend. I really wanted to, but I was too busy with work and lessons. I'm so sorry, I just hope you're not mad at me. Please call me back when you get the chance. Bye."

There was nothing else to do but finish his homework. He wanted to call her again but he didn't want to seem desperate. Even though he was.

He jumped up when his phone rang an hour later.

"Marinette," he answered breathlessly.

"Hey Adrien, I'm sorry that I missed your calls. And I'm sorry for calling so late, I just didn't want you to think that I was mad at you."

"So you're not mad?" he asked.

"Of course not," she replied. "I know you have a busy schedule. I completely understand."

Adrien wished that he could kiss her through the phone. "You're so wonderful Marinette. How'd I get so lucky to have a girl like you?"

"Adrien!" she protested, laughing. "You can't say things like that to me. Do you really want me to fall even _more_ in love with you?"

"Yes I do," he answered. And he was dead serious.

She laughed again as they continued talking.

************************************

Adrien practically sprinted into school the next morning. This was finally it, time to see Marinette.

He was intercepted, however, as he went through the courtyard.

"Adrien!" a voice called over to him. Lila Rossi quickly ran up and threw her arms around the blond boy.

"Oh, hey Lila," he mumbled, squirming away.

"It's so awesome to see you again. I can't believe I've been gone for an entire month. It's horrible that I missed so much of school, but you can't exactly say 'no' to Prince Ali when he invites you to stay at his residence in Corsica!"

"Uh huh," he replied unenthusiastically. "Well it's great to see you but I have to go."

"I'll come with you," she said as she walked alongside him. "Corsica was so beautiful, and it was so great to relax with the royal family on their private beach..."

Adrien stopped listening. Everything that came out of Lila's mouth was a lie, so there was no point in paying attention. He had much more important things to pay attention to.

His heart skipped a beat when he saw his girlfriend. Moving away from Lila he ran up to Marinette, pulled her up to a standing position and kissed her ardently.

Lila's mouth fell open for a minute in shock before it slowly morphed into a snarl.

"You two need to get a room," Nino chuckled.

The couple eventually stopped kissing but stayed close to each other. "It's been way too long since I got to do that," Adrien whispered.

She giggled at him.

"Oh are you dating now?" Lila asked, coming up to them with a fake smile on her face.

"Yes we are," Adrien said, not letting go of Marinette.

"When did you start going out?"

"About two weeks ago," he said curtly, hoping that she would catch the hint and leave.

"How wonderful. I'm _so_ happy for you guys," Lila purred.

"I'm sure you are Lila," Marinette said, keeping her eyes on Adrien. "Now if you don't mind, we're going to continue with our private conversation. Oh, and welcome back."

Her eyes narrowed slightly. "Yes of course. I'll talk to you later Adrien," she said sauntering off.

He smiled wider when Lila was gone. "I forgot how beautiful you are," he whispered.

"It was only two days Adrien," she teased.

"It felt like forever." He was about to kiss her again but Miss Bustier interrupted.

"Alright students, it's time to settle down and take your seats."

Adrien groaned quietly and finally let go of Marinette. Both of them sat down and turned their attention to the teacher.

"First off, let's all welcome back Lila," she continued.

"Thank you so much Miss Bustier!" Lila announced. "I've missed all of you and I'm thrilled to be back after all of my travels!"

Most of the students murmured their responses. Adrien, Marinette and Chloé rolled their eyes.

Lila's face returned to a snarl as Miss Bustier started teaching. Instead of listening to the lesson, she glared at Marinette.

At the end of class she stayed in her seat and watched the couple clasp hands and walk out together. When she was the last one in the room, she pulled out her phone, pressed a few buttons and then put it up to her ear.

************************************

The day went by far too quickly for Adrien. He was upset when school was over, but at least this time they would only be apart for one evening. He could manage that... couldn't he?

Entering the front door of his house, Adrien stopped suddenly at seeing his father on the foyer stairs. Nathalie was standing off to the side, and neither of them looked happy. It was never good when they were waiting for him when he got home.

The boy stepped forward and mentally prepared himself for his father's wrath. Hopefully this wasn't about Marinette.

"What is this preposterous rumor I hear about you dating a classmate?" Gabriel barked.

Adrien looked down at the floor.

"So it's true," Gabriel continued. "And what excuse do you have for not informing your own father about this?"

"I'm sorry Father. You seemed very unhappy the last time we spoke and I didn't want to upset you further. I swear I was going to tell you soon."

"Well there will be no need for that. You are to terminate this relationship immediately. I don't even want to imagine what would have happened if the press got word that you were dating a baker's daughter," Gabriel huffed.

Adrien had already known that his father would be less than thrilled at hearing about his relationship. But he never thought in a million years that he would order him to end it. He wasn't going to let this happen.

"I... I'm not breaking up with Marinette," he said with what he hoped was determination in his voice.

Gabriel stared at his son. "Excuse me?" he asked coldly.

"Marinette is a great person, and I'm not breaking up with her."

The silence was deafening.

After a minute Gabriel finally spoke. "What makes you think that you have a say in this? Don't forget, you live in my house. And when you live in my house, you live by my rules. If you _refuse_ to live by my rules, then I'll have no choice but to pull you out of school."

Anger surged through Adrien's veins, but he needed to stay calm. He needed to do this for Marinette. "If you pull me out of school, then I will no longer be modeling for your brand. Just imagine what would happen if the press got word that Gabriel Agreste's own son refused to work with him."

Nathalie's eyes widened at hearing Adrien threaten Gabriel back. He had never stood up to him before.

The father-son duo glared at each other.

"Go to your room," Gabriel finally growled.

Adrien immediately hurried up the stairs and down the hallway to his room. He slammed the door shut behind him.

Once inside his bedroom, Plagg popped out of his shirt. "Okay, who are you and what have you done with Adrien?"

"I can't believe my father," Adrien seethed, ignoring Plagg's joke. "It's not up to him who I can and cannot date. Just when I thought that he couldn't get any worse, he goes and does this. Well I'm done being his puppet. Come on, we're getting out of here. Plagg, claws out!"

************************************

Chat Noir landed in an alleyway near Marinette's house and detransformed. He texted her.

**Are you home right now?**

She replied quickly.

**Yes I'm home. What's going on?**

**I'm outside.**

**Outside my house?**

Adrien rang the doorbell. A minute later Marinette opened the door and jumped into his arms. After kissing, he put his hand to her cheek. "I'm sorry for coming over uninvited."

"No, it's such a wonderful surprise," Marinette whispered, gazing up at him. She leaned in and pressed her lips to his. "Come on, let's go inside," she said after the kiss.

She pulled him up the stairs to the living room. "Maman, Papa... Adrien's here to visit," she told her parents.

"Oh, I was wondering why you suddenly went running downstairs. This explains it," Sabine teased. "Welcome back Adrien, it's always nice to see you."

"Thank you for having me," he replied.

"Adrien, I'm glad you're here," Tom said, walking up to him and putting his hand on his shoulder. "I've been meaning to ask you something." He narrowed his eyes at the boy. "What exactly are your intentions with my daughter?" he demanded.

Adrien's eyes widened and his heart started racing. "Mr Dupain, I uh... I mean... Marinette and I, um..."

Tom suddenly smiled and laughed. "I'm just messing with you, son. Relax!"

"Papa!" Marinette reprimanded him as Adrien chuckled.

Tom kept laughing. "I'm sorry, but what's the point of having a daughter if I can't even intimidate her boyfriend every once in a while?"

"Oh Tom, you're embarrassing the poor girl in front of Adrien. You know how much she's in love with him!" Sabine said.

"Maman!" Marinette yelled before covering her face with her hands.

Adrien was trying to contain his laughter.

"Alright dear. Let's leave them alone now. I'm sure they want some privacy so they can work on their school project again," Tom said, winking at his wife.

Marinette let out a muffled groan as her parents went downstairs to the bakery kitchen. After a second she peeked out behind her fingers. "Are they gone?" she asked.

"Yeah, they're gone," Adrien replied.

She put her hands down. "I am so sorry about that. I swear they sit around and try to think of new ways to embarrass me sometimes."

"It's probably just their way of showing you how much they care." He moved up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "As for me, this is how _I_ like to show you how much I care," he said before kissing her.

She giggled as they separated. "You can show me how much you care whenever you want."

"I intend to," Adrien replied as he leaned in again.


	8. A Hoodie, Bad Timing and An Agreement

Nathalie went up to Adrien's door and knocked. Hearing no reply, she opened it and walked inside. "Adrien?" she called out. No response. After a quick search, she sighed to herself and left the room.

She descended the stairs to her boss's study. "I'm sorry Sir, but Adrien isn't in his bedroom."

Gabriel looked up from his computer screen. "What?" he asked angrily.

"He's not in his bedroom," she repeated. "He must have snuck out again."

"Go out and find him!" he demanded.

"Right away Sir," Nathalie responded before exiting the study. She had a pretty good idea exactly where he would be.

************************************

At Marinette's house the young couple still had their arms wrapped around each other. Adrien loved being close to his girlfriend, so he was holding on to her tightly. He wished that he could stay there forever.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I made something for you," Marinette told him.

"You made something for me?" he asked surprised.

"Yeah, I worked on it all weekend and I just finished it up when I got home today. I was planning on bringing it to school tomorrow, but I guess I could give it to you now since you're here."

"Thank you Marinette, you're so sweet," he gushed.

"Don't thank me yet, you haven't even seen what it is!" she chuckled.

"Well if you made it, I'm sure it's amazing."

Marinette blushed slightly at the compliment. "Come on, it's upstairs," she said, pulling away and grabbing his hand. She started towards the stairs but stopped and turned around. "Maman, Papa, is it okay if me and Adrien go up to my room?" she called down to the bakery kitchen.

Both of her parents answered simultaneously.

"Of course sweetie," Sabine called out.

"Absolutely not," Tom called out.

The girl sighed. "Well that was very helpful." She turned towards Adrien again. "Stay here, I'll be right back."

He watched her climb the stairs and disappear into her bedroom. He had been in there before. Several times in fact. But things were different now that they were dating. The tips of his ears started turning red as he thought about the implications.

She returned a minute later with some fabric in her hand. "Sorry I didn't get the chance to wrap it."

Adrien grabbed the dark gray fabric and unfolded it.

"It's a sleeveless hoodie," she explained. "The fabric is really lightweight, so you can wear it on the warmer days when you're incognito. You know, so you'll be more comfortable when you go out," she added, smiling at him.

Adrien stopped breathing. That had to be the most thoughtful gift that he had ever received. And Marinette spent all weekend making it for him. Not because it was his birthday, not because it was any special occasion at all. But simply because she thought it would make his life a little better.

Noticing his silence, she kept speaking. "Don't feel like you have to wear it though. It's fine if you don't really like it..."

"I love it," Adrien interrupted. Then he blinked. Wait... why did he say 'it'? What he really meant to say was 'you'. 'I love _you_ ' is what he meant.

He was in love. With Marinette. Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the girl who loved him with all of her heart. And now he finally loved her back.

It was undeniable. Adrien had never felt what he was feeling at that moment. Like he could fly. Like he was going to throw up. Like he would very willingly give up his life for her.

The world shifted in that moment and everything else faded away. Now it was just him and Marinette.

He needed to tell her. She needed to know how he felt.

But after hearing him say that he loved the hoodie Marinette clapped her hands together. "I'm so glad!" she squealed. "Will you try it on? I'd like to see how it fits."

Adrien quickly nodded and pulled the hoodie over his head.

"It looks so good on you!" she exclaimed, smiling brightly. She put her hands up to his shoulders to smooth out the fabric. "And it looks like it fits well. Oh I'm so happy!" She reached around his neck and pulled the hood over his head. Then she took a step back to see the whole look. "Now you're all set Griffin."

He couldn't control himself. She just wasn't close enough to him. He stepped forward and slammed his lips into hers, pulling her close. Marinette let out a muffled squeal from surprise but quickly melted into the kiss. Then she put her hands around his neck.

The heated exchange lasted for a minute before they had to stop to gasp for air.

"Dri... eh... can wasing amaze..." Marinette sputtered.

Still not having caught his breath, Adrien quickly kissed her again. He didn't need air, he needed her. He needed her lips on his. He needed her arms around him. And she needed to know how much he loved her.

"Marinette," he said, gasping again after he pulled away.

"Adrien, that was... amazing." She suddenly stopped and blinked. "Why does that... let me... speak normally again?"

"I don't know," he whispered, putting his hand to her cheek. He caressed her soft skin with his thumb.

Tilting her head slightly, she smiled sweetly up at him.

He had to tell her. Now was the perfect moment. Those beautiful blue eyes of hers were piercing into his. He felt tears welling up as he smiled at her. "Marinette," he said slowly, overcome with emotion. "I..."

"Adrien, Nathalie is here to pick you up!" Sabine called from downstairs.

His heart sank. He couldn't believe the bad timing.

Those blue eyes blinked and looked away from him. "Oh, I didn't even hear the doorbell ring," Marinette sighed, looking at him again. "Thank you so much for visiting me Adrien. I always have a wonderful time with you."

"Me too," he whispered before kissing her lovingly.

"Adrien... oh I'm sorry," Sabine chuckled as she walked into the room and saw the kissing couple. The two separated, both a little embarrassed. "Nathalie's here for you."

"I uh, I guess I'll see you at school tomorrow," Marinette said, giving Adrien a small smile.

He nodded and slowly stepped away. "I'll see you tomorrow," he told her.

His heart ached as he followed Sabine to the bakery. He wanted nothing more than to stay with the one he loved. She was his whole world now, and being apart from her would be torture. But he had no other choice than to go home.

************************************

Gabriel was waiting for his son in the foyer again.

Adrien walked through the front door and glared up at his father. He stopped at the bottom of the steps, waiting for another verbal lashing. Nathalie closed the door behind him and took her place on the side of the room.

"What is that you're wearing?" Gabriel asked, his expression difficult to read.

Of all the things his father could have said at that moment, Adrien was _not_ expecting that. "It's a gift from Marinette. She made it for me."

"So, you snuck out to see the baker's daughter?"

"She has a name," Adrien hissed.

Gabriel paused for a second. "You're right, she does. But let's get one thing straight. You are never to sneak out of this house again. The next time you want to see Marinette, you must go with either Nathalie or your bodyguard."

Adrien furrowed his brow. He felt like he was having an out-of-body experience. "Are you saying that I can continue to date Marinette?"

"Yes I am. But under two additional conditions. Number one, you are to keep your relationship out of the public eye. At least for now. Is that understood?"

The boy nodded hesitantly.

"And number two," Gabriel continued. "You are to invite Marinette to come over here after school tomorrow so I can speak with her personally. I need to make sure that she understands the importance of keeping your relationship private. Are we in agreement?"

Adrien tried to contain his excitement. "Yes Father."

Gabriel nodded. "Very well. Now go to your room and do your schoolwork. Nathalie will call you when dinner is ready."

"Thank you," he said before running up the stairs.

When he was gone Nathalie moved up to Gabriel. "Why the sudden change of heart?" she asked her boss.

He smiled over at her. "Adrien's at an age where he feels that he knows what's best for his life. We'll let him think that he won this round. And since we couldn't convince him to break up with the baker's daughter... well, then we'll just have to gently persuade her to break up with him instead."

A small smile crossed Nathalie's lips.

"If you'll excuse me," Gabriel continued. "I need to get back to work." He walked down the steps and towards his study. "Oh, and Nathalie," he said, turning towards her, "I want you to find out everything you can about this girl."

"Of course Sir," Nathalie replied as her boss disappeared into his study.


	9. A Sleepless Night and A Hug

Once she was done with her usual work for the day, Nathalie sat at her desk inside of Gabriel's study and turned on the computer. Now to do the extra work that her boss requested. 

Not that she minded extra work. She didn't have any friends or family so there was nothing else to do anyway. Her job was her whole life. 

She had been working for the Agreste family for years. Originally brought in to help raise and educate Adrien, her role eventually shifted to that of Gabriel's personal assistant. 

And she would do anything for Gabriel Agreste. He was just so commendable. The way he sacrificed for his family... she really admired (and yes, loved) him for it. 

In fact, she loved him so much that she willingly became his accomplice in the terrorization of Paris. With the help of the Peacock Miraculous, she assisted Hawk Moth in his quest to defeat Ladybug and Chat Noir. 

And yes, technically what they were doing was illegal. But it was for a good reason. It was to release Gabriel's wife Emilie from an enchanted sleep. 

So Gabriel wasn't really a bad person. This was just a means to an end. If there was any other way to save his family, he would have done it.

The computer turned on and she got started.

Her work? Finding out everything there is to know about Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

The hours ticked by as Nathalie searched. First she went through public records where she found some basic information like names of family members, birthdates, addresses, etc.

Next she moved on to school records. Schools attended, teachers, classmates... 

Nathalie scrunched up her face. Huh, that was weird.

Around midnight she moved on to Google and social media. Facebook, Twitter and then finally Instagram.

Scrolling through the pictures, Nathalie's heart rate started increasing and she leaned in towards the screen. Scrolling... scrolling... then she stopped on a picture.

"You have got to be kidding me," she whispered to herself. A huge smile appeared on her face as she quickly reached over and turned the printer on.

************************************

Gabriel was woken from his sleep by the sound of his phone ringing. He looked over at the clock.

02:07

Sitting upright and grabbing the phone he pressed a button. "What is it?" he demanded. 

"Sir," Nathalie said, "I need you to come and see something."

"Can't it wait?"

"Trust me Sir, you want to see this."

Gabriel muttered to himself as he disconnected and stood up. He put his robe on over his pajamas and left his room. 

Nathalie was waiting for him at the bottom of the foyer stairs with a folder in her hand. 

"And what is so important that it couldn't wait until the morning?" he asked coldly. 

"Follow me to the dining room," Nathalie said, turning and walking away. 

"The dining room?" he repeated as they walked. 

"We need a lot of space for this."

Once inside she gestured over to his seat. Completely unamused, he sat down.

Nathalie took a piece of paper out of the folder and put it down on the table in front of him. "Here's the information that you asked for Sir. Regarding Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

He looked down at the paper in front of him. It was a picture of Marinette.

"Born and raised in Paris, she is the only child of Thomas Dupain and Sabine Cheng. They live in the house above her parent's bakery at 12 Rue Gotlib. Marinette attends Collège Françoise Dupont and is in the same year and class as Adrien."

Gabriel sighed. "This is all well and good, but I don't understand why this couldn't wait until morning."

"I'm not finished yet," Nathalie continued. "Things get a little more interesting when we move on to some of her acquaintances." She put down another picture. Gabriel glanced down at the girl staring back up at him. 

"Alya Césaire, Marinette's best friend."

She put down another picture next to the others. "Nino Lahiffe, Alya's boyfriend and a long-time classmate of Marinette's."

More pictures. "Chloé Bourgeois, Max Kanté and Lê Chiên Kim, all classmates."

A picture of an Asian girl. "Kagami Tsurugi, a friend of Marinette's who she met through Adrien."

Another picture. "Luka Couffaine, an older brother of a classmate who was romantically linked with Marinette, although it's unclear if they actually dated."

Nathalie finally paused. Gabriel kept his eyes on the pictures spread before him.

Then she placed other pictures on top of the ones already on the table.

A picture of Rena Rouge was placed on top of Alya. Carapace on top of Nino. Then Queen Bee, Pegasus, King Monkey, Ryuko and Viperion on top of Chloé, Max, Kim, Kagami and Luka, respectively. 

"Quite some interesting acquaintances, don't you think?" Nathalie asked. Gabriel finally looked back up at her.

"She's the right age, the right height, the right body type, the right eye color and the right hair color. And she has the right personality." Nathalie looked down at the folder. "Her teachers describe her as... 'a model student, helpful and optimistic.' In fact, the only negative things they mention are her frequent tardies and unexcused absences."

She continued, looking back at her boss. "And she's the one who returned the Grimoire to you after Adrien took it out of the safe. The Grimoire that Master Fu had pictures of on his tablet."

Gabriel started smiling as he kept listening. 

"Not to mention the fact that she's never been akumatized." Nathalie finally paused and took a deep breath. "Gabriel Agreste, I present to you... the savior of Paris." She placed one last picture on the table.

A picture of Ladybug. And she placed it on top of the picture of Marinette. 

************************************

Adrien woke up that morning feeling the happiest he had been in a very long time. Today was going to be the best day of his life. 

He would go to school and see Marinette. Then afterwards the two of them would come back to his house like his father had requested. And to top things off, he was going to tell her that he was in love with her. She was going to be so happy.

And they'd be together. Eventually they would get married and have three kids and a hamster. Their life would be absolutely wonderful.

He got out of bed and used the bathroom before getting dressed.

Plagg rolled his eyes as he watched him prance around the room.

"Time to go!" Adrien sing-songed, walking towards the door. 

The kwami groaned and flew over to him, disappearing into his shirt. 

Adrien swung open the door but jolted to a stop. His father was standing right there in front of him in the hallway.

He stared up at him. What in the world was going on? His father seemed almost... happy?

After a moment Gabriel moved forward and hugged his son. Adrien hugged him back. 

"Adrien, I wanted to apologize for yesterday," Gabriel said, pulling away from the hug. "I hope that you can forgive me for my atrocious behavior."

This was completely unexpected. His father never apologized for anything. Maybe he was finally changing. 

"Of course I forgive you Father," Adrien said. "I'm sorry too."

He nodded. "Let's forget about yesterday, we're moving forward now. Today's going to be a great day."

"Yes it is," Adrien agreed, smiling. Then his face fell slightly. "It's uh... it's still okay if Marinette comes over this afternoon, right?"

"Yes of course. I'm looking forward to it," Gabriel responded. "Now come with me. Let's go have breakfast and you can tell me all about your girlfriend," he continued, guiding Adrien down the stairs. "Did you invite her over yet?"

"Yes, I called her last night and she said that she can come."

"Excellent. It's very important that I meet her properly and speak with her."

Adrien was surprised as they walked into the dining room. His father usually sat at the other end of the table far away from him. But today his place setting was right next to his. "You're sitting over here?" he asked.

"Well how else are we supposed to talk?" Gabriel responded, sitting down.

Adrien happily took his seat beside him. Nathalie walked in and placed their plates of food down. Then she took her spot along the wall as they picked up their forks and started eating. 

"So tell me all about her. What is she like?" 

A huge smile crossed Adrien's face. "Absolutely wonderful," he gushed. He took a bite of food before continuing. "She's sweet and funny. And she's really smart, she's one of the best students in our class."

"Is that why you like her so much, because she's smart?" Gabriel asked, taking a bite. 

"I like her for a lot of reasons. But I think that it's her generous heart that I like the most."

"And that's why you asked her out?"

Adrien chuckled. "Actually she asked me out. I guess she's had a crush on me for a while."

Gabriel raised his eyebrows before smiling wider. "Well isn't that interesting," he murmured, glancing over at Nathalie momentarily.

"Yeah, she's really great," he said before taking the last few bites of his food. 

"Well if you're done, why don't I walk you out? You don't want to be late for school."

Adrien nodded. The two stood up and walked out to the foyer, Nathalie following behind. 

"Have a great day," Gabriel said as Adrien made his way out the front door.

"Thank you Father. Bye Nathalie," he said, closing the door behind him. 

The smile on Gabriel's face melted into its normal scowl. "Do you think Adrien knows?" he asked Nathalie without turning around.

"I seriously doubt it Sir," she said, moving up to him. "Ladybug is always very careful about protecting her identity. And she and Adrien just recently started dating. I'm confident that he has no idea who she really is."

Gabriel nodded. "Good." He looked over at her. "Now what do you say we get things ready for our special guest?"

Nathalie smiled in response before Gabriel went to his study. 


	10. An Impromptu Fashion Show, A Dessert Box and An Expensive Present

Everything was falling into place. 

First, Adrien's father had surprised him with an apology and a pleasant conversation about his relationship with Marinette.

And who knows, maybe his father would eventually approve of them being together. Adrien wasn't going to hold his breath on that though.

Next, he and Marinette arrived at school at the exact same time. Every extra second he got to be with her was a dream come true. 

Then they got paired together for a project for their literature class that was due the following Monday. "My parents are _never_ going to believe us," Marinette giggled over to Adrien.

At lunch they ate at the park where they had their first date. They even sat on the same bench.

And he got to hold Marinette's hand in their last class. Alya agreed to switch seats with him so they joined hands underneath the desk. 

This was going to be the best day of his life, he could feel it. 

His confidence faltered slightly at the end of school. He noticed that Marinette seemed quieter than usual. 

"Marinette, is everything okay?" Adrien asked as they made their way outside. 

"I'm just a little nervous about meeting with your father. What if I stumble and fall or say something stupid? What if he hates me?"

"He's not going to hate you," he assured her. "Just be yourself, and he'll see how wonderful you are."

She sighed and looked down at her shirt. "Ugh, I just wish that I didn't wear this outfit today. I'm meeting Gabriel Agreste, the fashion designer, and I decide to wear _this_?"

"I think you look great," Adrien said, wrapping his arms around her. 

"You're sweet," she said, tilting her forehead into his chin. "I just don't want to mess this up."

How much more perfect could she get? "Alright, if it will make you feel better, why don't we stop by your house real quick so you can change your outfit?" he suggested. 

Marinette gasped. "That would be so great. Thank you Adrien."

"Anything for you Princess."

She smiled and kissed him. "Well let's hurry up. I don't want to keep your father waiting too long."

Adrien went over to his town car and told his bodyguard that they were going to make a quick stop at Marinette's. Then the couple hurried to her house.

"Hi you two, I thought you were going over to Adrien's house today," Sabine said when she saw them come into the bakery. 

"We are, I just want to change first," Marinette explained as she pulled Adrien by the hand upstairs.

They stopped in the living room. "Wait here," Marinette told him before ascending the steps to her bedroom.

Adrien watched her go. Boy, did he want to go up there too.

After a minute she came halfway down the steps and stopped. "What do you think of this?" she asked, referring to her new outfit.

She had a black and white striped shirt, skinny jeans and black boots on. 

Adrien thought he was going to have a heart attack. She looked so hot. "You look so hot," he said mindlessly. 

"No," she sighed. "This is too trendy. I need something more original." She disappeared into her bedroom again. 

After another minute she came back. Now she was wearing a green and white plaid dress that tied around the waist, a black motorcycle jacket and heels.

Adrien thought his heart couldn't possibly beat any faster. "That one," he said breathlessly.

"Ugh, now I look like I'm trying too hard!" Marinette said, throwing her arms into the air in frustration and going back up.

Another minute and she was back. This time she had a flowered high-neck sleeveless top, capri jeans and a wedge sandal.

Adrien.exe has stopped working. 

"What... do you think?" Marinette asked timidly. 

"Stunning," is all he could mumble out.

She smiled for a second before her eyes widened. "We're going to be late!" she shouted, running to her room, grabbing her purse and then going back. "We have to go!" Then she dragged Adrien down the stairs and through the bakery.

"Take this with you," Sabine said as she handed her daughter a box.

************************************

Gabriel was on the foyer stairs again. He had been waiting for this moment for a very long time.

Nathalie was there too. She was relieved that this ordeal would finally be over.

They both smiled when Adrien opened the front door and walked in, Marinette by his side. 

"Father," the boy said, gazing lovingly at the girl next to him, "this is my girlfriend Marinette."

"What an honor it is to have you in our home, Miss Dupain-Cheng," Gabriel purred, bowing slightly towards her. 

Marinette seemed surprised by the greeting. "Thank you Mr Agreste. I'm very glad to be here."

"You remember my assistant, Nathalie Sancoeur?" Gabriel asked, gesturing over to her.

"Yes of course. How nice to see you again Miss Sancoeur."

Nathalie nodded her head in response. 

"What is that you have there?" Gabriel continued. 

"Oh, it's a box of desserts from my parent's bakery. They thought you might enjoy them."

"That was very thoughtful of them," he said as Nathalie walked over and took the box from her. "I'm sure we'll all enjoy them after dinner tonight." He paused for a moment. "Well, why don't we go to the dining room and sit down so we can talk for a while?"

Marinette smiled and nodded before looking over at Adrien. He was looking back at her. "Shall we?" he asked, offering his arm out to her. She giggled and hooked her arm around his as he guided her to the dining room.

They went in and sat in two adjoining chairs near the fireplace. Gabriel sat in a chair across from them. Nathalie placed the box of desserts on the dining table and then moved over next to him.

"First of all, I wanted to speak with you about keeping your and Adrien's relationship out of the public eye. Adrien has been the face of my brand for many years now, and I'm sorry to say that part of his appeal to our young female fans is his perceived availability. There will be a lot of disappointed girls in Paris once the news of your relationship breaks. So I respectfully request that you two keep things quiet for the time being."

Marinette was not surprised by the request at all. Adrien had already told her the reason that his father invited her over. "Of course Mr Agreste, I understand completely," she responded.

"Perfect. You definitely seem like the type of person that knows how to keep a secret."

She smiled before turning to Adrien. "Are you sure that you want me to be your girlfriend? Think of all those young female fans out there waiting for you," she teased.

Adrien laughed. "Like I told you already, _you_ are my favorite fangirl," he said, winking at her. 

They both giggled until they looked back over at Gabriel, when they abruptly stopped. 

"Now that that's taken care of, let's talk about more important things," Gabriel said. "You, Miss Dupain-Cheng."

Marinette raised her eyebrows.

"I hear that you're quite interested in fashion," he continued. 

"Oh, uh..." she stammered, suddenly embarrassed. "Yes I am..."

"She's really talented," Adrien cut in. "Don't you remember that she won your design challenge last year?"

"Adrien, you don't have to..." Marinette tried to say before Gabriel interrupted her.

"Of course I remember. Your work was very impressive Miss Dupain-Cheng. And if I recall correctly, even Audrey Bourgeois was quite taken with your work as well."

"She was," Adrien answered, beaming over at his girlfriend.

"Oh, I don't know if I would put it like that..." Marinette mumbled.

"Now don't be modest, Miss Dupain-Cheng. It's obvious that you have the designer's eye and the skills to back it up. You remind me of myself at your age."

Adrien couldn't believe what he was hearing. This meeting was going so much better than he could have ever dreamed of.

Marinette couldn't believe what she was hearing either. That had to be the greatest compliment that she had ever received. "Thank you Mr Agreste, that's very kind of you to say." 

"You're very welcome. Perhaps you could even assist me with something. You know, designer to designer. My new spring ad campaign will start shooting soon, and I'm having a great deal of trouble trying to find someone to work alongside Adrien."

"As a model, you mean?" Marinette asked. 

"Yes, exactly," Gabriel continued. "But no experience would be necessary. I'm looking for a boy around your age. About eight to ten centimeters taller than you. Average to slim build, but muscular. Maybe someone you go to school with? Or maybe someone you've worked with before? You know, someone reliable and trustworthy. Does... anyone specific come to mind?"

Marinette looked down in thought. Hmm... the boys in her class. Well Kim and Ivan were too tall. And Max and Nathaniel were too short. "Oh! Adrien's best friend Nino generally fits that description. Maybe him?" she suggested, looking back up at Gabriel.

"No, I'm afraid he won't work. Can you think of anyone else?"

She looked down again and thought for a minute. All of the other boys that she knew didn't match up. All except... she smiled at the thought. She got a mental image of Chat Noir posing for a fashion shoot. That would be absolutely hilarious. 

Gabriel leaned forward in his chair as he noticed her amused expression.

"I'm sorry Mr Agreste," she finally said. "I can't think of anyone else off the top of my head. But I can keep my eye out and let you know if I find someone."

"Yes, please keep an eye out," he said, his smile fading slightly. He sat back in his chair. "Well, why don't we move on then. Nathalie and I have a present for you." He turned to his assistant. "Would you mind grabbing it for us?"

Nathalie nodded and left the room. 

Marinette's eyes widened. "A present for me? You didn't need to get me anything."

"It's no problem. Anyone who's important to Adrien is important to us too," Gabriel continued as Nathalie came back in. She handed Marinette a small black box and then stood next to her boss again.

Marinette smiled over at Adrien.

"Go ahead, open it up," he encouraged her. This day really couldn't get any better.

"Okay," she said excitedly. She smiled at Gabriel and Nathalie before lifting up the top of the box. The smile, however, disappeared from her face as her eyes landed on the present inside.

It was a pair of diamond and ruby dangle earrings.

Panic washed over her as she stared down at them.

"What is it?" Adrien asked, leaning closer to get a look.

"They... they're earrings," she said, turning the box towards him so he could see. 

"Wow!" he exclaimed, smiling brightly. "Thank you Father, thank you Nathalie!"

"Yes, thank you," Marinette repeated lacklusterly.

"You're very welcome," Gabriel said. "It doesn't appear that you like them though."

"No, no," she objected. "I love them, really. They're absolutely gorgeous. It's just... they're just too expensive. I... I can't accept this," she said, holding the box out to him.

Gabriel chuckled. "Don't be ridiculous. I _insist_. It's the least we could do after everything that you've done for us." He paused for a moment. "Now go ahead, try them on. Let's see how they look on you."

She shook her head. "Oh no, I couldn't..."

"Try them on," Adrien said, beaming at her. "I bet they'll look beautiful on you."

Gabriel and Nathalie exchanged glances as Marinette looked back at her boyfriend. "Okay," she said quietly. She reluctantly placed the jewelry box on the coffee table in front of her. Then she removed one piece and slowly reached up to her ear.

Suddenly there was a whirring noise as all the lights went off.


	11. Two Stowaways and A Secret

Plagg flew into Marinette's purse on the car ride to Adrien's house. Tikki wasn't surprised to see him. With Adrien and Marinette dating now, they would always hang out with each other when they were together. 

"Hey Sugar Cube," he whispered.

"I told you, stop calling me that," Tikki sighed. 

"You need to lighten up. You were so much more fun back in the Dark Ages," he quipped. After a moment he tilted his chin up, sniffing the air. "What's that smell?" he asked excitedly. 

"It's probably just something from the bakery," she replied. 

The black kwami's face lit up and he flew out of Marinette's purse.

"Plagg no!" Tikki whisper-yelled after him, but it was too late. She groaned as she followed him into the dessert box.

"I knew I smelled something good," Plagg whispered, gazing at the assortment of pastries. "I mean, not _Camembert_ good, but good enough."

"Don't you dare," Tikki whispered back. 

Plagg crossed his arms and turned his head away from her. 

They suddenly felt the car stop. Then they felt Marinette pick up the box, climb out of the car and walk towards the house.

"Oh great, now we're stuck in here," Tikki hissed at Plagg.

They both remained silent as they listened to the conversation around them. 

_"Father, this is my girlfriend Marinette."_

_"What an honor it is to have you in our home, Miss Dupain-Cheng."_

"We have to get out of here," Tikki pleaded.

"Relax, they're not going to open the box right now," Plagg argued back.

_"Oh, it's a box of desserts from my parent's bakery. They thought you might enjoy them."_

_"That was very thoughtful of them."_

The kwamis felt the box move again.

_"I'm sure we'll all enjoy them after dinner tonight."_

"See?" Plagg whispered to Tikki. She glared at him in annoyance.

They felt the box move until there was a bump. Then it was perfectly still. 

Now the conversation was farther away. 

_"First of all, I wanted to speak with you about keeping your and Adrien's relationship out of the public eye."_

Tikki peeked out of the box. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that they were on the dining table away from everyone. "You are so lucky that we didn't get caught!" she told Plagg. 

"That's why I keep you around, Sugar Cube. You're always good luck," he said eyeing the desserts. 

"Uh uh, no way. You can't eat anything."

"Oh come on, I'm starving!" Plagg whined. 

_"Your work was very impressive Miss Dupain-Cheng."_

"They're not going to notice if one thing is missing," Plagg continued. 

"Shhh! I'm trying to listen. It sounds like the meeting is going very well," Tikki said happily. 

She continued listening for a few minutes before...

"Sugar Cuuuuuuuuuuube!"

"Ugh! If I let you eat one piece will you promise to shut up?" she asked.

"Cross my heart!"

"We don't have hearts," she muttered before sighing. "Fine! But just one!"

_"A present for me? You didn't need to get me anything."_

"This is so great," Tikki squealed. Plagg rolled his eyes as he chomped on a pastry. 

_"They... they're earrings."_

Tikki gasped. "No no no, this can't be. Plagg, did you hear that?" she asked, turning to him. "Adrien's father got Marinette a set of earrings!"

"Yeah, so?" he replied, taking his last bite.

"Are you serious?" Tikki demanded. "She can't take her earrings off in front of everyone!"

"What's the big deal? They'll still be in their hidden form unless she renounces you. Which I'm pretty sure she won't do."

_"Now go ahead, try them on. Let's see how they look on you."_

"It doesn't matter! She can't risk losing them," Tikki said. 

"Alright, alright," Plagg finally groaned. "But what are we supposed to do about it anyway?"

"We'll need to create a diversion," she replied. "And fast."

************************************

Marinette reluctantly placed the jewelry box on the coffee table in front of her. Then she removed one piece and slowly reached up to her ear.

Suddenly there was a whirring noise as all the lights went off.

The four of them blinked at each other for a moment. 

"What just happened?" Gabriel bellowed, turning towards Nathalie. 

She quickly turned on her tablet and pressed a few buttons. "The system is down. We have a complete electrical failure."

"What about the back-up generator?" he asked. 

"It hasn't turned on yet."

Adrien checked his phone. "And there's no reception. The whole grid must be affected. It has to be another akuma attack."

"No," Gabriel, Nathalie and Marinette all said at the same time. 

"I mean..." Marinette continued. "It's probably just a regular power outage. These things happen all the time. I'm sure it's nothing." She had a feeling that something else was going on. The timing was a little too perfect. "And it's still light outside so we can still see without power."

"Miss Dupain-Cheng is right, I'm sure everything is fine. I just have to go check on something. I'll be back shortly," Gabriel said, walking towards the door. Once he reached it he turned back around. "You two stay here!" he barked before leaving. Nathalie followed him out the door. 

Marinette looked at Adrien. "Is your father okay?"

"He's fine. He just always freaks out when we lose power. But come on, we need to get out of here." He grabbed her hand and pulled her up. 

"But your father said that we should wait here," she said as he guided her out of the dining room. 

"I know, but we need to get to my room. We'll be safer there."

"What are you talking about? It's only a power outage."

He pulled her up the stairs. "I'm not so sure about that." Once inside the room he closed the door behind them. 

"Adrien, what's going on?" Marinette asked. 

"I need to keep you safe," he said, putting his hands up to her face. 

She shook her head. "There's nothing to keep me safe from. It's just the power," she tried arguing again. 

"No, something is going on. It has to be an akuma attack. Why else would the whole grid go down?"

"I... I don't know," she said defeatedly.

He tilted his head slightly. "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to scare you. I just want to make sure that you're safe. You... you mean too much to me."

As he looked into her eyes he knew that this was it. This was the right moment. 

Adrien smiled softly. "I love you Marinette."

Her eyes grew wide at hearing the words. "What?" she asked, barely at a whisper. 

"I love you. I've completely fallen in love with you. You're everything to me."

She blinked as tears came to her eyes. "I love you too Adrien."

He smiled wider and then leaned forward to kiss her. Marinette met him halfway. 

Their kiss was full of joy and love.

When the two finally broke apart they stayed close, gazing into each other's eyes. And everything was perfect. 

At least, it was for a minute. 

Adrien suddenly pulled back. "I'm sorry Marinette, but I have to go," he said.

"Wha... what are you talking about? Where do you have to go?" she asked confused. 

"I... have to go help."

Marinette shook her head. "Nathalie is already helping your father. They'll be fine. Please stay here... with me." She placed her hand on top of his and smiled at him.

Adrien wanted to stay more than anything, but he had a responsibility to uphold. "I'm sorry," he repeated. 

Her face fell. "I don't understand what's wrong," she said, lowering her hand down. 

He couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't stand to see her like that. "Marinette, I love you. And I trust you. If I tell you something, do you promise to keep it a secret?"

She nodded her head. "Yes of course."

Adrien smiled at her again. "Okay. Then there's someone I want you to meet."

Complete and utter confusion washed over Marinette. What in the world was he talking about?

He took a step back from her. "This is Plagg."

The black cat kwami suddenly appeared at his shoulder. 

Marinette felt her heart stop. 

For a few seconds the girl and the kwami stared at the other. 

Plagg had a nervous smile on his face. "Hi Marinette," he said through clenched teeth. 

She looked over at Adrien as tears came back to her eyes.

"It's okay, he won't hurt you," Adrien said, noticing her expression. "He's my kwami, he allows me to transform into..."

"No," she interrupted, shaking her head and moving back slightly. 

"Don't be afraid. You'll understand in a moment. Plagg, claws out." A green light surrounding him as Plagg was sucked into the ring on his right hand. 

Marinette closed her eyes from the light. When she opened them Chat Noir was standing in front of her. The tears started falling down her cheeks. 

"It's okay, it's just me," Chat Noir said, taking a step forward and reaching out to her. 

She immediately backed away and put her hands up in a defensive stance. "No don't I... not can... op can't..." she stuttered. 

"It's just me," he repeated, moving closer.

She kept backing away. "Me lease... I no..." She clenched her eyes shut in frustration.

"Marinette..." he said, taking another step. 

"Stop!" she suddenly yelled and opened her eyes. "Don't touch me. Please... just stay away," she whispered. 

Chat Noir felt like his heart was breaking. He never imagined that she would be upset. "Marinette, I love you..."

She let out a sob and shook her head. "No you don't."

"Yes I do," he pleaded. 

"No. You were in love with Ladybug."

Ladybug. He was so distracted by Marinette's reaction that he almost forgot about the akuma attack. Ladybug needed him. "I'm so sorry Marinette. I have to go. I promise I'll explain everything to you after. Please stay here where you're safe." He tried one more time to move towards her but she backed away. "I'm so sorry," he repeated, tears coming to his eyes too. Reluctantly he turned and went over to the windows.

She watched him as he jumped out and disappeared. Then she sank to her knees. A loud sob escaped her lips as Tikki appeared.

Marinette looked at her. "Why didn't you tell me?" she choked out. 

"I'm sorry Marinette. But you're not supposed to know each other's identities. And you didn't _want_ to know."

They both looked up as the lights flickered and turned back on.

"Did you have anything to do with the power outage?" Marinette asked. 

"Technically it was Plagg, but he was only supposed to turn off the power to the house. I guess his cataclysm was stronger than we expected."

"We'll finish talking about this later," Marinette said. "We need to get out of here before they get back." She stood up and wiped her face.

Tikki flew into her purse and they quickly left the room.

As she descended the stairs, Gabriel and Nathalie walked out of the study.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng," he said, his eyes narrowing at seeing her there. "I thought I told you to stay in the dining room."

"I'm sorry Mr Agreste..."

"What happened?" he interrupted, his expression softening. "Why are you so upset?"

"I'm so sorry. I have a personal emergency and I need to leave," she said. 

He paused. "Of course. Well you're welcome here anytime Miss Dupain-Cheng."

"Thank you Mr Agreste. And thank you for having me over today. I had a wonderful time," she said, her voice cracking.

He nodded as she walked to the door.

"Thank you Miss Sancoeur," she added as she walked past her. 

Once she left Nathalie moved up to her boss. "You're just letting her leave?"

"We know who she is and where to find her. No point in playing our hand too soon." He furrowed his brow. "But we were wrong. She doesn't know Chat Noir's identity. If she did, she would have told us his name. She was obviously thinking about him when I described him earlier."

"So what do we do now? Her earrings are useless without his ring."

He paused for a second in thought. "We keep her close. We make sure that her and Adrien's relationship continues to go smoothly so she keeps coming over here. And we wait until we think of a plan." Gabriel turned to look at the front door. "But she was genuinely upset when she left. Something happened since we saw her in the dining room." He turned back to Nathalie. "Find out what it was."


	12. Lies, Memories and Broken Hearts

Chat Noir landed on the window ledge and jumped down to the floor of his bedroom. Not wanting to upset Marinette any further, he immediately detransformed into Adrien.

"Marinette!" he called out, searching the room for her. She wasn't there.

"Way to go," Plagg said. "There wasn't even an akuma attack, just a power outage like Marinette said. You revealed your identity for no reason."

"Where is she?" Adrien said out loud, ignoring the kwami. He needed to know that she was okay after everything that had happened. "Maybe she went back down..."

There was a knock at the door.

He smiled and ran to open it. "Mari..." he started to say but stopped at seeing Nathalie standing in the hallway.

"Your father told you to stay in the dining room," she growled at him.

Adrien blinked. "I'm sorry, we uh... I wanted to show Marinette my room."

She closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. "Well what happened? She was upset when she left."

"She left?" he repeated, his heart sinking.

Nathalie gave him a confused look. "You didn't notice that she's not in your room anymore?"

"I uh... of course I noticed. I just mean that uh..." He racked his brain for a believable excuse. "She uh... she said that she wanted to try on her new earrings, so she was going to the dining room to get them."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Well she didn't go to the dining room. Did you do something to upset her?"

Adrien vigorously shook his head. "No."

Nathalie didn't respond immediately. She continued looking at him for a minute. "Alright," she finally said. "I'll come get you when dinner's ready."

Adrien closed the bedroom door and quickly pulled out his phone. Still no reception.

************************************

Marinette ran all the way home. Her parents were preoccupied with the power outage, allowing her to get up to her room without having to face them.

She collapsed to the floor once she reached her bedroom. After crying for a minute, she collected herself and looked up at Tikki. "How long have you known?"

"Ever since you fought against the Dark Owl," she said quietly.

Marinette thought back. "That was months ago. And you didn't think it was important to tell me?"

"I'm sorry Marinette, but you weren't supposed to know."

"I can't believe this is happening. This is bad... this is really _really_ bad."

"Look, I know that you're upset, but it's not that bad," Tikki insisted. "Adrien has been right next to you, and _in love_ with you, this whole time. Isn't that a good thing?"

Marinette covered her face with her hands. "He didn't know it was me," she mumbled.

"It doesn't matter! He fell in love with you twice and you're happy together, so what's the issue?"

She looked back at the kwami and shook her head. "Don't you remember what happened the last time we were together?"

Tikki's smile faded. "That's not going to happen again..."

Marinette interrupted her. "He said 'Our love did this to the world.' Us being together got him akumatized and then he destroyed all of Paris. He was completely alone, singing to himself on top of a building. How can I let that happen again?"

"But Marinette, things are different now."

She paused momentarily. "You're right, things _are_ different. He doesn't know that I'm Ladybug this time. And he can't find out. We..." She hesitated, trying to speak past the lump in her throat. "We'll need to stop seeing each other."

Tikki gasped. "No Marinette, there's no reason for you to stop dating."

"The more time we spend together, the greater the chance that he'll figure out who I am. I need to stay as far away from him as possible."

"But... you two are so happy together."

The girl shrugged as some tears fell down her cheeks. "I can't risk having that happen to him again. I love him too much."

************************************

Adrien trudged to dinner and sat down silently. The black jewelry box was next to his plate.

His father was back in his normal seat at the far end of the table. "I trust that you'll be able to deliver Marinette's present to her tomorrow?"

"Yes Father," he replied, picking up his fork. He looked down at his plate but had no desire to eat.

"Marinette was upset when she left," Gabriel said. "She told us that she had a personal emergency. Do you know what happened?"

Adrien shook his head, keeping his eyes on his plate.

"That's strange," Gabriel continued. "Considering the fact that her cell phone reception must have been down from the power outage. So whatever upset her must have happened in your room," he finished, glaring at his son.

This was not good. His father knew that he was lying.

"I... did something that upset her," he finally admitted.

His father kept glaring, waiting for him to elaborate.

"She uh, found out that I was keeping something from her," Adrien explained, not making eye contact.

"So you lied to her, and she found out?"

"Well it wasn't really a lie, more like an omission..."

"That's the same thing," Gabriel huffed. "Well you won't be lying to her any more, will you?"

"No," he said sheepishly.

"Good. Invite her over again. Hopefully she'll forgive you and agree to come."

"Yes Father."

Gabriel nodded and turned to his dinner.

Adrien took a few bites of his food. But he didn't care about eating, he just wanted to talk to Marinette.

He sat there for a few minutes and then checked his phone. "The reception is back," he said, looking up hopefully at his father.

"Alright, you're excused," Gabriel sighed.

Adrien jumped up and ran out to the foyer. He pressed the button to call Marinette as he climbed the stairs and went to his room.

"Please pick up, please pick up," he begged, listening to the rings.

"It's Marinette, leave a message. Beep!"

Disappointed, he disconnected the call. Then he sulked over to his computer desk and sat down. The photo of him and Marinette was still there propped up against the screen.

He examined the picture. They would need to take another one together soon.

After a few minutes, he called again. No luck.

"It's Marinette, leave a message. Beep!"

This time he left a message.

"Marinette, I'm so sorry. I know you're upset, just please call me back when you get this message. I love you so much. Bye."

He disconnected the call. "Ugh, she's still not answering." He looked over at Plagg. "Come on, we have to go see her."

"That's probably not the best idea right now. Just give Marinette some time, I'm sure she'll cool off soon enough."

"So you think she's angry?"

"Probably," Plagg replied.

"I don't know. She didn't seem angry at all. She seemed more... afraid. Why would she be afraid?"

"I think that you're overthinking this. Give her some time and I'm sure things will go back to normal."

Adrien looked over at their photo. "I sure hope so," he sighed.

************************************

Marinette didn't call him back.

The next morning Adrien got to school early and waited for her outside of the building. He didn't want to miss his chance to speak with her before class.

Just minutes before school started, he saw Marinette walking from her house. He ran over and stopped in front of her. "Marinette, I'm so sorry I upset you yesterday. Please forgive me."

"Adrien," she started, keeping her eyes down on the ground, "I'm sorry I left so suddenly..."

"No, don't be sorry. You did nothing wrong." He paused. "Are you feeling better about... everything?"

"Yeah, I'm feeling better," she replied, nodding her head slightly.

"I'm so glad," he said, smiling. "Oh, and I have your earrings." He dug into his school bag and pulled out the jewelry box.

"I... I can't accept those. They're too expensive."

"But my father really wants you to have them," he argued.

"I'm sorry, I can't."

He stared at her for a few seconds and then nodded. "Alright, I understand." He put the box away and took a step towards her.

"Adrien," Marinette said quickly, stepping backwards and looking at him. "I think that it's best if we go back to being friends."

Adrien felt like someone had punched him in the stomach. "What?" he whispered.

"It was really nice of you to agree to go out with me. Not too many people would have done that. But you were never interested in dating me. And it wouldn't be fair if I keep dragging you along in a relationship that you never wanted to be a part of. Love doesn't work if it only goes half way..."

"But I do love you Marinette," Adrien interrupted.

"I know that you _think_ you do, but you're not really in love. We've just been spending a lot of time together recently. That's all it is."

"No," he whispered, shaking his head. "The feelings I have for you are real. I'm in love with you."

"You'll see. Once we spend some time apart, you'll realize that..."

"But I don't want to spend time apart."

Marinette looked to the side, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall. "We're going to be late for class. We should go."

"I don't care about class," he said, moving up to her. "You're the most important thing in my life. You believed that I loved you yesterday, why don't you believe me today?"

She didn't respond. She just kept avoiding his gaze.

After a moment Adrien suddenly realized the problem. He should have known from the beginning what this was really about. "This is about me being Chat Noir, isn't it?" he asked softly.

Marinette scrunched up her face as a tear fell. "No," she whispered.

He moved in more. "Yes it is. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you before. I wasn't even supposed to tell you at all..."

"This isn't about that," she interjected. "We're just not right for each other."

"That's not true Marinette, and you know it. I'm in love with you and you're in love with me. We're perfect for each other." He put his hand up to her cheek. "Please forgive me Princess. I promise that I'll never hold anything back from you again. I'll tell you everything. There won't be any more secrets between us."

Marinette finally met his gaze. "I'm sorry," she whispered, simultaneously breaking both of their hearts.

With that, she moved around Adrien and ran into the building.


	13. A Wilde Story and A Mistake

The day was miserable for both Adrien and Marinette. Even their friends and classmates, who could tell that something was wrong, were unhappy too. The only two that didn't seem affected were Chloé and Lila.

Of course Alya asked Marinette what happened, but she couldn't get any answers out of the girl. And Nino tried with Adrien, but was also unsuccessful. All everyone knew was that _something_ happened.

And perhaps Miss Bustier knew too, because she made an announcement during their last class of the day. "Alright students, for the remainder of class we'll be splitting up into our pairs to work on the literature projects due Monday. Each pair will be assigned a different short story written by Oscar Wilde. You will be responsible for writing a three-page essay and giving a five to ten minute presentation on the underlying themes of the story. Everyone get into their pairs and I'll come around with your assignment."

Marinette felt even worse than she was already feeling. Now she and Adrien would have to work on a project. A legitimate one this time. How were they supposed to stay away from each other when they were being forced to work together?

She kept her eyes down as Adrien and Alya switched seats. "Hey," he murmured once he was next to her.

"Hey," she murmured back.

"I'm really happy that we were paired together for this," he continued.

Marinette didn't say anything in response.

Miss Bustier started walking around the classroom handing out papers. "Alya and Nino, you have 'The Happy Prince.' Marinette and Adrien, you have 'The Nightingale and the Rose.' Max and Alix, you have..."

They looked down at the papers in front of them. "I guess we should read the story first and then go from there?" Adrien suggested.

She nodded and started reading. Her heart sank as she absorbed the words.

The story was about love. And to top it off, there wasn't a happy ending.

Tears stung Marinette's eyes as she finished reading. She glanced quickly at Adrien. Noticing that he was done, she cleared her throat. "Why don't we... each write down what we think the themes are, and then we can compare?" she asked weakly.

"Okay."

They both jotted down a few ideas and switched papers.

"Well it seems like we mostly agree," Marinette said. "Why don't I start writing the essay tonight, and then tomorrow you can look at it and add your ideas. And then I can look at it, and we can keep switching until it's done."

"Marinette, we're supposed to do this together," Adrien reminded her gently.

She looked down at the desk. "I know," she whispered.

Adrien moved closer to her. "Why don't you come over to my house today and we'll work on it? My father said that you're welcome to come over anytime."

"Um, today's not good."

"Okay..." he said disappointed. "Well I'm busy tomorrow and Friday but we could meet up on Saturday."

She nodded. "I'll see if Saturday works," she said, looking back at him.

Their eyes locked for a minute before the bell rang. Turning away, Marinette started gathering her things and putting them in her backpack.

Adrien watched her. "Can I... walk you home?" he asked.

She stopped what she was doing. "I live right next door Adrien. I don't need anyone to walk me home."

"Please Princess? I just want to talk."

"I don't think you should call me that anymore," she replied as a tear made its way down her face. After wiping it away, she continued packing up her things.

"Please Marinette?" he tried again.

"There's no point in talking. We'll go back to being friends, and we'll be happy like that. Give it some time, you'll see."

He grabbed her hand as she tried to stand up. "I can't just be your friend anymore. I want more than that."

Marinette turned towards him and put her hand to his face. He leaned into her touch. "I'm sorry," she said through the tears. "But I can't give you more than that right now."

Adrien closed his eyes as she pulled away. He reopened them in time to see her walk out of the classroom.

************************************

Thursday and Friday didn't go much better. Adrien desperately tried to change Marinette's mind, but she was adamant that they stop dating.

At least she agreed to meet up with him on Saturday to work on the project. He was going to use that time to convince her that they belonged together.

Adrien waited in the foyer that morning for Marinette to arrive. He nervously paced back and forth.

Gabriel came out of his study to prepare for her arrival as well. "I take it that Marinette is still upset with you?" he asked, watching his son pace.

"Yes she is, but I'm going to make things right again," he said, determined.

"Good. A girl like Marinette is hard to find."

Nathalie came out of the study. "Marinette's here," she announced, moving towards the door.

Adrien quickly smoothed out his shirt and ran his fingers through his hair.

Gabriel watched his son amusedly but turned his attention to Marinette as she walked in. "Miss Dupain-Cheng, how wonderful to see you again."

"Hello Mr Agreste, Miss Sancoeur. Thank you for having me." She looked over at Adrien. "Hi."

"Hi Marinette," he said breathlessly. "You look beautiful today."

She blinked at him. "Thank you. Are... you ready to start on the project?"

He nodded before turning to his father. "Would it be okay if Marinette and I go work in my room?"

"Oh, he probably prefers that we work down here," Marinette said quickly.

"No that's fine," Gabriel said, shocking everyone around him. "You'll have more privacy there."

"We... we don't need privacy," she insisted.

"You two will be able to focus better without any of the staff interrupting your work. Now go on upstairs. Nathalie and I will be here if you need us," he continued, heading towards his study.

"Thank you Father!" Adrien called out after them. Then he looked at Marinette and smiled. "Are you ready?"

She nodded and slowly climbed up the stairs. Adrien went ahead and opened the bedroom door for her. Once they were both inside he closed it behind him.

Marinette walked over to his computer desk and put her backpack on the floor. She started pulling out her papers but stopped when she saw the photo propped up against the computer screen.

"Do you remember when we took that picture?" Adrien asked, coming up to her.

"Yes I do," she whispered.

"That was a really nice day, don't you think?"

"We should get started on the project," she said, trying to change the subject. "I have plans later so I need to leave by three."

"Of course," he said, pulling the chair out for her.

"Where are you going to sit?" she asked, looking around. There was only one chair.

"Oh, um... I guess I'll just stand. I don't mind."

"Don't be ridiculous Adrien, you're not going to stand the whole time. Let's go work on the couch. We can use my laptop."

"That sounds great," he said smiling. She was so good to him.

She grabbed her backpack, brought it to the couch and sat down. He gathered up the papers on his desk and sat down next to her.

They started their work on the essay. Marinette typed while they discussed the story. Since they agreed on the themes, the writing came easy.

And for a while it was just like it used to be. They were enjoying each other's company as they went along. Adrien kept moving closer to Marinette every chance that he got. By the time the essay was done, he was right next to her.

"That was easy enough," she declared, typing the last few words of the essay and putting the laptop on the coffee table. "I'll send you a copy in case you want to change anything," she added as she turned to him.

"I won't change anything. It's already perfect." He reached up and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Just like you."

Marinette froze for a second before speaking. "Adrien, I..." she started, but stopped as she got caught in his eyes. All the thoughts in her mind completely disappeared and she couldn't do anything but stare back at him.

Adrien knew that this was his chance. He leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. She responded by quickly putting her hands into his hair. Then his hands snaked around her waist and he pulled her closer.

Every fiber of love he had went into that kiss. He was depending on it to get the girl of his dreams back.

After a minute Marinette suddenly moved her hands down and pressed them against his chest, pushing him away. "Adrien... I'm sorry... we can't..." she gasped.

"No Marinette," he pleaded with her, putting his hand to her face. "We're meant to be together."

"Coming here was a mistake. I can't do this," she cried, pulling away from him and standing up. She grabbed her backpack and started putting everything inside.

Adrien stood too. "Please don't go, I promise I won't kiss you again. Please Marinette, I'll do anything you want. Just tell me how we can fix this."

"It can't be fixed," she choked out. Slinging her backpack over her shoulder, she turned to leave but was stopped by Adrien grabbing her hand.

"Please don't go. We... we still need to work on our presentation."

"We'll figure it out later. Right now I have to go, I have plans."

He didn't let go of her hand. "Where are you going?"

"I have to go," she whispered. She finally pulled away and went towards the door.

"I'll walk you out," Adrien said, rushing up next to her. They walked to the hallway and down the stairs together. Adrien wanted to hold her hand as they walked but she kept hers firmly on the straps of her backpack.

Once at the door he stepped ahead to open it. But when he touched the handle he stopped. He didn't have the heart to open it and let her leave. He stood there for a minute before looking over at her.

"Goodbye Adrien," she squeaked out, keeping her head down.

She was trying to hide it, but he could see the despair on her face. Reluctantly he opened the door. "I love you Marinette," he whispered as she walked past him outside. 


	14. A Painting, A Damaged Miraculous and A Supervillian

Gabriel Agreste stood in his study looking up at the painting of his wife Emilie. It had been over a year now since she fell into an enchanted sleep. And ever since then, his life hadn't been the same. But it wasn't just his life; the lives of all Parisians changed.

The couple had a wonderful life together. Having met in lycée, they instantly fell in love and started dating. After five years they got married.

Two years later they were surprised to discover that Emilie was pregnant. They didn't plan on having children, at least not so soon. The both of them were so involved with their careers, Gabriel being a designer, and Emilie being a model and an actress. 

Even though it was unplanned, Emilie was over the moon to be having a baby. Gabriel, not so much. He had always been happy with it being just the two of them.

After their son Adrien was born, Emilie officially quit her job to stay home with him. They also hired Nathalie to assist in raising the boy, and the two women soon became best friends.

Emilie loved every moment of being a mother. She and Adrien were extremely close, bonding through the years as Gabriel started working longer and longer hours as he became more and more successful.

The couple were extremely happy with their lives. In fact, their only point of contention was whether or not to have more children. She desperately wanted more, while he was adamant against it. With his wife being so involved with Adrien's upbringing, the last thing Gabriel wanted was another child taking up more of her time and attention.

As the years went by Emilie accepted the reality that they would be a family of three. She already felt blessed to have such a wonderful son in Adrien, and she would do anything for him.

But as he grew older, she became more concerned about the world around them. Paris was becoming more dangerous every year. Both she and Gabriel decided that it was best to limit Adrien's time outside of the house. She wanted him home where he was safe.

Then things changed dramatically when they all went on a family ski trip to Tibet when Adrien was twelve.

It was there that Nathalie stumbled upon a treasure that was lost to the world over a hundred years prior. The Butterfly Miraculous, the damaged Peacock Miraculous and a spellbook were unearthed and taken back to Paris with them.

Once home, Emilie convinced her husband that they should start using the Miraculouses. With the Butterfly's power to transform regular people into superheroes, and the Peacock's power to use emotions to make sentimonsters, they would make Paris safe. Just think, with an army of superheroes and non-human creatures to protect the city, Paris would be the safest place in the whole world to live.

So Gabriel started using the Butterfly Miraculous and practiced making superheroes. Nathalie and Emilie were his willing test subjects.

Then Emilie started using the Peacock Miraculous to practice making sentimonsters. "What a horrible name!" she always declared. "They're not monsters at all."

She started out small, then eventually made more complex creatures. It wasn't long, however, before both she and Gabriel realized that the damaged Miraculous was taking a toll on her. The more she used it, the sicker she got.

First she would just feel a little tired. Then the dizzy spells started. And the headaches. And the coughing. After a while she started sleeping more and more at night.

Gabriel pleaded with her to stop, but she was determined to find the perfect sentimonster that could protect the city. Adrien needed a safe place to live and the clock was ticking. After all, they couldn't keep him locked away from the world forever.

She pushed herself too hard. One fateful evening she took the Peacock Miraculous off for the last time.

Her husband was the one who found her unconscious body on the floor of their bedroom. Examining her, she seemed perfectly fine. Perfectly fine, except for the fact that she wouldn't wake up.

Now Gabriel Agreste had never been an emotional person. But at seeing what happened to his wife, the person he had always loved the most, he completely broke down. The tears poured out as he leaned over her and pressed his forehead against hers.

That was when he felt his soul leave his body. It was easily the worst moment of his life. No matter what happened to him in the future, he would never ever forget how he felt there with her. Desperately wishing that he could do something... anything. For his true love. To bring her back to him.

His wife, the mother of his child and the love of his life, was gone. They had been together for twenty-one years, but it wasn't enough. They needed more time.

He stayed with her like that for hours. As dawn broke he realized that he would have to move her out of their bedroom. He couldn't risk Adrien stumbling upon her, so he hid her body in a part of the house that only he and Emilie knew about.

Gabriel didn't dare take her to a hospital. He would never be able to explain the nature of her illness. And who knows, he might have been blamed, and subsequently punished, for what happened to her.

After a couple of days, with no change in her condition, he reported her missing to the authorities. They conducted an investigation, but with no evidence of foul play and no leads, the case went cold after a few weeks. According to the world, Emilie Agreste simply disappeared without a trace. The only person who knew what really happened was her husband.

About a month went by before Gabriel came to the conclusion that Emilie was not going to wake up on her own. But with the help of a cryogenic pod, he could at least keep her alive until he could find a cure.

Magic caused her to fall into an enchanted sleep, so there had to be some other magical way to wake her up. After questioning Nooroo and Duusu, the kwamis of the Butterfly and the Peacock Miraculouses, he found the solution he needed.

All he would have to do is find two other Miraculouses, the one of the Ladybug and the Black Cat, and combine them together. Then he would be able to make an ultimate wish to bring Emilie back.

The Miraculouses, he was told, would be with a Master Guardian. But there was no way to track that person down. The Temple of the Guardians had been destroyed and there had been no signs of any other Miraculouses being used in over a hundred years.

Finally he decided that he would need to _force_ the Guardian to come out of hiding. And there was no better way to find a superhero than with the appearance of a supervillain.

With that decision Gabriel became Hawk Moth, and he started his reign of terror on Paris. Eventually he enlisted the help of his assistant Nathalie, who started using the Peacock Miraculous as Mayura.

He needed Ladybug's earrings and Chat Noir's ring. After a year of hard work, they finally discovered Ladybug's identity. Now they just needed to discover Chat Noir's.

Soon they would accomplish their mission and Emilie would wake up. They would be a family again, just like they were supposed to be. And all of their sacrifices would have been worthwhile.

His thoughts were interrupted by Nathalie as she walked into the study. "I'm sorry to disturb you Sir, but I wanted to inform you that Marinette left. Adrien seemed upset when he went back upstairs so I don't think it went well."

Gabriel didn't turn around to face her as he spoke. "Thank you Nathalie. I'm not overly concerned about it. It's obvious that she's really in love with him, so I'm sure they'll work things out."

Nathalie silently left the room and closed the door behind her.

Gabriel Agreste continued staring up at the painting of his wife and smiled. He was half way to his goal. And he would never give up.


	15. A Dress Rehearsal and A Walk Home

Marinette rushed home from Adrien's house. Her parents were in the bakery when she got there.

"How did it go, sweetie?" her mother asked with a hopeful smile.

"Fine," she lied as she quickly climbed the stairs to the living room.

She wasn't fast enough though. Both of her parents could see the tears around her eyes. They exchanged sad glances before going back to work.

Marinette went to her room and threw herself down on her bed. "I knew going over there was a horrible idea," she cried to Tikki.

"You didn't really have a choice," the kwami told her. "You had to meet with him for your project."

"Ugh, why did I let him kiss me? It's like I have no willpower at all. How am I supposed to get over him when I can't even look at him without caving?"

"You're in love with him Marinette. Those feelings don't magically disappear simply because you think that he's better off without you."

"I'm trying to keep him safe. I'm trying to keep _everyone_ safe. Why don't you understand?" she asked weakly.

Tikki flew closer and hugged her cheek. "I do understand, but it's just a problem that needs to be solved. Together we're going to find a way to solve it."

She rested her hand against Tikki and sighed. "Yes we are," she whispered.

************************************

Marinette was running late. After crying herself out, she took a quick shower and got ready to go out again. "I'll be home by eight!" she called to her mother as she grabbed a croissant and ran out the door.

She half jogged, half sprinted to the Couffaine houseboat. Kitty Section had a big performance coming up, and as the band's costume designer, Marinette was obligated to go to the dress rehearsal.

"I'm sorry I'm late," she panted when she climbed on-board. She leaned over and put her hands on her knees to catch her breath.

Everyone in the band was already there setting up their instruments. Luka walked over to her, smiling. "It's no problem, we were just about to start."

Rose and Juleka also went over to her. "It's okay Marinette, we totally understand," Rose said sadly, giving her a big hug.

"Yeah, don't worry about it," Juleka added with a sympathetic look before hugging her too.

Ivan nodded solemnly at her from his seat at the drums.

Luka's face fell at seeing everyone's sorrowful interaction with Marinette. What in the world was going on?

"Well let's get started," Marinette said before going over to the table with the costumes.

The band members took their places and started running through the song list. Once Marinette found the supplies she needed, she went around to each person. One by one they would try on their costume, and she would make any adjustments that were needed. The last person she got to was Luka.

He looked at her while she adjusted his mask. The light that normally shined brightly through her eyes was dulled. And her beautiful smile was nowhere to be found. He hated seeing her like that.

When she was done with the costumes, Marinette sat down to listen to the music. She wanted to relax and enjoy the moment, but every time she closed her eyes all she saw was _him_.

At the end of the rehearsal she got up and stretched. "You guys sound great. I bet you'll blow everyone away tomorrow night."

"Thanks Marinette. Are you sure you can't make it?" Rose asked.

"I'm sure, but you know that I'll be there in spirit," she replied.

The girls went up and hugged her again, saying their goodbyes.

"I'll walk you home," Luka offered, coming up beside her as she left.

Marinette shook her head. "Oh no, that's okay. I'll be fine."

"I think I should. It's going to get dark soon, and I'll be worried if you're out all by yourself."

The girl gave him a small smile. "Alright, I guess it's okay."

"Great," he said as they continued.

They walked in silence for a few minutes until Luka finally spoke again. "Marinette, is something wrong? You don't seem like yourself."

"You don't want to know," she responded quietly.

Luka stopped walking and put his hand on her shoulder to stop her too. "Of course I want to know. Like I told you before, you can tell me anything."

Unable to hold in the pain anymore, Marinette started crying. "It... it's Adrien. We... we were going out for a couple of weeks... and then something happened... and now everything's a mess." She covered her face with her hands.

Luka wrapped her up in a hug. "I'm sorry," he whispered. He held on for a minute, letting her get it all out.

She pulled back a little to look at him. "I'm sorry for crying like this, it's just been really tough."

"Don't worry about it," he said, putting his hand to her face. "I really care about you Marinette, and I'll always be here for you. Whatever is going on between you and Adrien, I'm sure that you two will work it out and get past it."

She managed a weak smile. "Thank you," she whispered.

"It's no problem Mari..." he tried to say, but was suddenly pulled back and tossed to the ground.

"Get off of her!" the leather-clad superhero yelled as he yanked the boy away. Then he turned to the startled girl. "Are you okay Marinette?" he asked, putting his hands on her shoulders.

"I... I'm fine," she said in shock. After a second she glanced at Luka on the ground before looking back at Chat Noir. "Why did you do that?"

"It's okay man," Luka said, getting up. "Me and Marinette are friends. Everything's okay."

"He's walking me home," Marinette added, her face twisting up in despair. "Why are you here?"

"I just wanted to make sure that you're safe," he insisted.

"I'm safe," she choked out, the tears falling again.

Chat Noir stared at her. "I'm sorry," he whispered so Luka wouldn't hear. "I just don't want him taking advantage of you."

"He's not," she whispered back.

He nodded. "Why don't I walk you the rest of the way?" he asked, louder. "You can go home Luka."

"If that's okay with Marinette," Luka said, looking at her.

She met his gaze and nodded. "Thanks for everything."

"You're welcome. I'll see you around," he said, walking away.

Marinette looked back at Chat Noir. "Why are you here?" she asked again.

He gazed at her desperately. "You seemed so upset when you left earlier. I wanted to make sure that you were okay."

She tilted her head. "Have you been following me?" she asked incredulously.

Chat Noir didn't know how to respond so he just kept looking at her.

"Oh my gosh," she continued, taking a step back. "You _have_ been following me. That is so not okay."

"I'm sorry Marinette. I was worried about you..."

"Don't ever do that again," she interrupted.

He shook his head. "I won't. I'm so sorry."

Marinette wiped some tears from her face. "I'm going to go home now. I'll be fine walking by myself."

"No, it's too dangerous for you to be out all alone," he argued.

She thought of her options for a moment. "Fine, but stay out of sight. The last thing we need is someone to take a picture of me and Chat Noir strolling through Paris together."

He agreed and used his staff to propel himself to the nearest rooftop.

True to his word, Chat Noir stayed out of sight as Marinette walked to her house. After watching her go inside he waited a minute until he saw the lights in her bedroom turn on. The first thing she did was close all the curtains.

Feeling absolutely horrible, he took off towards home.

Once he landed inside of his room, he detransformed.

Plagg immediately glared at him. "I told you that this was a bad idea."

"I know," Adrien mumbled as he went over to his desk. He sat down and looked at their picture.

He was beside himself with sadness. Just days ago, he was the happiest that he had ever been. Marinette was in love with him, and he was in love with her.

But then she found out about his double life and everything fell apart. Ever since then, whatever he did just made things worse.

He really did have her best interest at heart when he followed her as Chat Noir. She was so upset when she left his house that he just wanted to make sure that she wasn't akumatized.

Once he saw that she went to Luka's, however, he decided to stay and watch over her. Not that he didn't trust her; of course he did. Marinette had already told him that she never had strong feelings for Luka. But it was obvious that Luka had strong feelings for her. So Chat Noir needed to make sure that nothing happened while she was so vulnerable.

And he just snapped when he saw Luka touch Marinette's face. He let his anger and jealousy overtake him.

Adrien took a deep breath in and exhaled. He needed to clear his head. Obviously he was making bad decisions from all the convoluted thoughts racing around. Maybe things would be clearer in the morning.

He got up, used the bathroom and changed into his pajamas.

"You're going to sleep already?" Plagg asked him.

"Yeah, I need to get some rest so I can figure this all out tomorrow," Adrien said before turning off the lights and lying down in bed.

But sleep eluded him.

Everything that happened between him and Marinette replayed over and over in his mind. From the moment that she confessed her feelings until the moment she closed her curtains in her bedroom, shutting him out of her life.

But most of all, he thought about the day when she found out his secret. And the minute where everything changed.

There they were, expressing their love for each other. Less than a minute later, he told her that he had to go.

He _had_ to go.

_Had_ to.

Like he was being forced.

But no, no one was forcing him to go. He was _choosing_ to leave. Choosing to leave instead of being there for Marinette.

Marinette. The one he loved. The one who had always been there for him.

And how did he repay her? By leaving her behind when she needed him the most.

Because he _had_ to.

He couldn't imagine what Marinette must have been feeling at that moment. Besides feeling afraid and confused, she probably felt a mixture of anger, sadness, worry and a million other things. Not to mention betrayed. Betrayed by the one that she loved the most. She needed him there, but he left her all alone.

Because he _had_ to.

Adrien's happiness was taken away from him. But wait... no, that's not true. He willingly gave it away.

Because he _had_ to.

His and Marinette's lives were torn apart and it was entirely his fault. He couldn't blame her for breaking up with him.

After all, how could he be a good boyfriend if he was constantly abandoning her when she needed him the most? She deserved so much better than that.

And 'better' was what he was going to give her.


	16. A Signature Salute, A Clean Cabinet and Breathing Problems

Ladybug was waiting at the top of the Eiffel Tower like she usually was. Sunday nights meant patrol, and this night was no different.

Except... everything was different.

She was looking out over the city and didn't turn around when she heard Chat Noir land beside her. "You can take the east side tonight," she said simply, not looking at him.

But he didn't respond. After a minute she had to turn to him.

"I'm sorry Ladybug," he started saying before he paused. "But I can't do this anymore."

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "Okay, I can take the east side."

He shook his head. "No, I mean I can't do _any_ of this. Patrol, akuma attacks, regular mishaps. I can't be Chat Noir anymore."

Ladybug suddenly felt like the world around her was spinning. The only things that weren't moving were her and Chat Noir. "What are you talking about?" she asked hesitantly.

"I can't do this. I can't be your partner. I'm giving my Miraculous back and you can find someone else. You can find another Chat Noir to take my place."

"No," Ladybug said, shaking her head. "You can't do that. _You_ are Chat Noir, there's no one else."

"I know that you don't understand, but I need to do this. Being Chat Noir has made me lose the most important person in my life. And I have to get her back. I'm sorry, but this is the only way."

"Please Kitty," she said, tearing up and moving over to him. "Don't do this. Paris needs you." She paused before continuing. " _I_ need you," she whispered.

"You don't need me," he said. "You're strong enough to handle anything."

"Not without you."

Chat Noir gave her a small smile. "You're amazing Ladybug. I hope you know that I loved every second that I got to fight alongside you. But now you're going to find someone else, and the two of you will save Paris. There's no doubt in my mind that you'll succeed."

She couldn't speak. All she could do was wrap her arms around him and hold on as if her life depended on it.

"It's okay," he whispered, stroking the back of her head. "Everything will work out, you'll see." He pushed her back so he could see her. "Send Wayzz over tonight to get my ring. He knows where I live."

"No," she cried, the tears streaming down her face.

"I have to go now, but I promise that everything will be okay. You believe me when I say that, right?"

"Chat... please..." she tried again.

He smiled more and leaned in, kissing her cheek. Ladybug looked at him when he pulled back and spoke. "Goodbye Wonder Bug." He stepped back and put two fingers up to his head, giving his signature salute before taking off into the night.

************************************

Chat Noir took an extra few minutes jumping around the rooftops of Paris before going back home. Besides Ladybug, the thing he would miss the most about being a superhero was the freedom it gave him.

Once inside his bedroom he detransformed for the last time.

"You can't be serious," Plagg whined as soon as he appeared.

"I'm sorry, but I've already made up my mind."

"Well, were you going to tell me?"

Adrien sighed. "You would have tried to talk me out of it."

"You're right, I would have because this is crazy. You can't give up being Chat Noir!"

"I know that you're upset Plagg but this is something I have to do. I have to get Marinette back."

"But... you can't..."

"I'm sorry. But don't worry, Ladybug will find someone else to be Chat Noir."

Plagg flew over and hugged his chest. "But they won't be you," he said tearfully.

"It's going to be okay. You can visit me whenever you want. I'll even keep some Camembert around for when you do," Adrien reassured him. "And speaking of Camembert, I'll need to clean out the cabinet now. Would you mind helping me?"

Plagg hugged him tighter. "You're the best Chat Noir I've ever had."

************************************

Plagg very kindly cleaned up all of the cheese. Then he stayed close to Adrien until Wayzz arrived.

"I can't believe it," the kwami muttered. "She actually sent him over here."

"Greetings," Wayzz said, flying up to them. "Ladybug sent me here to collect your Miraculous."

Adrien nodded at him before looking back at Plagg. "I guess this is it. Don't forget about me, okay?"

Plagg hugged him again. "Never."

After a momentary embrace, they separated.

"Ready?" Adrien asked, tears coming to his eyes.

Plagg nodded.

He nodded back and then put his hand to his ring. "Plagg, I renounce you," he whispered before sliding the ring off of his finger.

Plagg disappeared instantly and the ring turned black and green.

A tear fell down Adrien's cheek as he handed the ring to Wayzz.

"Take care of yourself," the turtle kwami told him.

"I will." Then he watched Wayzz fly through the window and into the distance.

Once he was alone Adrien glanced around his room. It was so much quieter than he remembered.

************************************

It only took two minutes for Wayzz to reach Marinette's house. He went through the open hatch and found her and Tikki on her bed.

"Thanks Wayzz," the girl said, taking the ring from him.

"You're welcome Master."

"I'll see you next time." Marinette removed the bracelet from her wrist, causing the kwami to disappear. Then she put it back in the Miracle Box.

After putting the box away, she slid the ring on her finger. Plagg immediately appeared, glaring at her with his arms crossed. "Don't give me that look," Marinette pleaded.

"What on earth are you doing, Marinette? Why would you let him do that?"

"Look Plagg, there are things going on that you don't understand..."

"You're right, I don't understand," he interrupted. "All I understand is that you're a complete hypocrite."

"How dare you!" Tikki scolded him, flying up to his face. "Marinette is doing this to protect Adrien. You have no idea what you're talking about."

"Alright, both of you stop. Plagg, there's something you need to know. But you can't tell Adrien. Got it?"

The kwami didn't look happy, but he nodded.

Marinette took in a deep breath and then started into her story. Plagg's expression changed as she spoke.

As she got to the end she reached up to wipe a tear away. "So you see, I can't risk having him get akumatized again. That's why Ladybug and Chat Noir can't be together."

When she finished speaking, Tikki hugged her cheek. Plagg flew over and hugged her other one. "I'm sorry Marinette," he said.

"It's alright Plagg, you didn't know." She pulled him away to look at him. "I sent Wayzz over to bring you here so I could explain everything to you. Now I need you to go back to Adrien and convince him to be Chat Noir again. I can't defeat Hawk Moth without him."

Plagg shook his head. "He won't listen to me. He's convinced that this is the only way to win you back. He's doing this for you."

Marinette put her hands to her forehead. "Ugh, this is a nightmare." She stopped to think for a minute, then lowered her hands down. "Maybe I should go talk to him, see if I can get him to change his mind."

"You, Marinette? Or you, Ladybug?" Tikki asked.

"Me, Ladybug."

Plagg shook his head again. "He won't change his mind. The boy is as stubborn as you are."

Marinette groaned. "I have to at least try." She looked at her kwami. "Tikki, spots on!"

************************************

Ladybug stopped on the roof of the building next to Adrien's house. She could see him inside his bedroom sitting at his desk. She caught her breath and then swung over, landing on the window ledge.

The noise caused Adrien to jump. He spun around quickly but froze at seeing the superhero.

"Adrien Agreste," she said, "may I come in?"

"Uh, of course," he replied a little too loudly.

Ladybug jumped down to the floor and slowly walked over to him. "I hope that I'm not interrupting your schoolwork."

"Oh no. I was just looking at a picture of me and my girlfr... um, my friend," he finished sadly, turning to look at it again. "She's beautiful, isn't she?"

"Uh yeah," Ladybug said strained. She suddenly had to grab on to his chair to steady herself. "Do you... mind if I sit down?" she asked with labored breaths.

"Not at all." Adrien quickly stood up and ushered her over to the couch.

"Thank you," she said, sitting down and resting her forearms on her thighs.

He sat down next to her. "Are you okay? You seem really tired."

"It's a long story." She took a few seconds to catch her breath before continuing. "Now for the reason that I'm here. I need you to reconsider."

Adrien raised his eyebrows. He tried to maintain his composure as his heart started racing. "Reconsider... what?"

Ladybug tilted her head slightly. "Come on Kitty, don't play dumb with me."

His eyes went wide and his mouth fell open. "But... how..." he sputtered before looking down at his lap for a minute. "Did Plagg tell you?"

She shook her head. "You know our kwamis can't reveal the names of their current or former Miraculous holders."

"How long have you known?" he asked, looking back at her.

"Not long," she answered quietly.

"I can't believe this," Adrien exclaimed, running his fingers through his hair. "And here I was, thinking that I could disappear."

She took in a deep breath. "I don't want you to disappear, Adrien. I want you to come back. Whatever issue you're having, we'll work together and we'll fix it."

"It can't be fixed," he whispered.

Ladybug's heart sank at hearing those words. That was the exact same thing that she said to him the day before. "Please Adrien," she continued. "Master Fu chose you for a reason. He knew that _you_ are the right person for this job. There's no one else that can do what you do."

"I'm sorry Ladybug but I'm not coming back."

She closed her eyes for a moment before looking at him again. "You're just upset and not thinking clearly. I'll give you some time..."

"I don't need time. I need my girlfriend back, and this is the only way to do that. If I'm Chat Noir then I can't be there for her. She needs Adrien, not a superhero who constantly abandons her to chase after villains. She means everything to me, and I need to be there for _her_ now."

Ladybug fought back the tears that threatened to spill out. "I... I need to go. I'm getting too tired."

"Why are you so tired?" he asked again.

"Wearing the two strongest Miraculouses simultaneously takes a lot of energy." She paused to catch her breath again. "You didn't notice that I'm wearing your ring?"

He quickly looked down to her hand. Sure enough, there was a ring on one of her fingers. "Why are you doing that?"

"The ring has to be activated to let Plagg out," she explained.

The kwami suddenly popped out of Ladybug's yo-yo. "Thought you could get rid of me that easily, huh?"

"Plagg!" Adrien cried, putting his hands up to him as they hugged.

Ladybug wiped her eyes. "You can stay here with Adrien tonight. But you... need to come back to my house first thing... tomorrow morning," she said, her breath now coming in gasps.

"But, you're getting too tired," Adrien argued.

"I just need... to get back home. Then I can detransform... and it will be a lot easier. Don't worry... about me, I'll be fine. You... need Plagg right now."

He nodded. "Thank you Ladybug."

"I'll... come back... another day." She started to get up. Adrien grabbed her hand and guided her to the window.

"Thanks," she whispered. Then with a small smile she took out her yo-yo and swung away.

As Adrien watched her go, Plagg flew up next to him. "So, you have any snacks?"


	17. A Splash of Water and A Presentation

Ladybug detransformed when she got back to her house. She immediately went to bed and fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning Plagg arrived as dawn broke. He and Tikki talked quietly until Marinette's alarm sounded.

But the girl didn't move at the noise. 

"Uh, Marinette?" Tikki said, flying up to her chosen after silencing the alarm. She put a hand to her cheek and shook her slightly. Still no response. "Marinette," she tried again, louder this time. A small snore escaped from the sleeping girl's lips. 

"What's going on?" Plagg asked, flying over. "Why isn't she waking up?"

"I don't know. She's usually pretty tired in the mornings but at least she'll wake up and yell at me to let her have more time."

"Marinette!" Plagg shouted into her ear. "Wakey, wakey!"

Another snore.

Tikki shook her again. "It has to be the Miraculouses. They must be draining too much energy. We have to get her to wake up and renounce you."

"Alright," Plagg groaned, looking around. He flew across the room and came back holding a water bottle. "I'm sorry Marinette," he said, opening it up. Then he unceremoniously dumped the contents onto her head.

Marinette stirred and half sat up, sputtering and coughing. "Wha... what's going on?" she asked, opening her eyes momentarily before closing them again. Then she lowered her head back down.

"No Marinette, you need to wake up!"

"Fivemoreminutes..." she slurred.

"Just say 'I renounce you Plagg,' and we'll let you sleep!" Tikki pleaded. 

"I... renounce..." Then silence.

Plagg pried an eyelid open, causing the girl to turn her head away. "Say it! Say 'I renounce you Plagg!'" he yelled. 

"I... renounce you... Plagg..."

The kwamis flew to her hand and pulled the rose-gold ring off of her finger. Plagg then disappeared as the ring turned black and green again. 

Marinette stirred and turned to her other side. Tikki sighed and then snuggled in against her. "Alright, five more minutes," she whispered. 

************************************

Class started and Marinette was nowhere to be found.

Of course Adrien had wanted to talk with her first thing that morning. He was going to tell her that he was no longer Chat Noir. And then hopefully she would forgive him and they would be together again. 

That was the ideal outcome. But he didn't want to get his hopes up too high. Who knows how long it would take her to forgive him, or if it would happen at all.

Their fate would be completely in her hands. The only thing that he could do was wait. And he would wait forever if that's what it took. 

Marinette finally showed up to class thirty minutes late. After muttering an apology to Miss Bustier she went to her seat. She and Adrien made eye contact momentarily before she sat down.

As the lesson continued she propped her head up with her arm. She tried to pay attention but her head was swimming. She was still trying to recover from wearing the two Miraculouses. Luckily her body was slowly readjusting and she was gaining more energy every minute.

And what Miss Bustier said at the end of the class really woke her up.

"I'll have everyone hand in your literature essays now. We'll save our presentations for the afternoon period."

Marinette was in full panic mode. She completely forgot about the presentation. After leaving Adrien's house on Saturday they never ended up talking about it. 

She dug through her bag as the bell rang. At least she had their essay ready to be handed in. 

When she looked back up she met Adrien's gaze. They locked eyes for a moment before she finally piped up. "I have our essay."

He nodded. "Marinette, can we talk?"

"Of course. I mean, we have to decide what we're going to do for our presentation," she added in a hushed tone.

"I want to talk to you about something else."

"Adrien, we don't have time. I promise we'll talk after school, but right now we need to get this figured out."

He gave her a small smile. "Okay."

She smiled back before she looked up and saw Miss Bustier glaring at them with her arms crossed.

"Sorry Miss Bustier," Marinette said, standing up and walking over to hand in the essay. 

"It's fine," the teacher replied, her expression softening. "Now hurry up to your next class."

Adrien came up beside Marinette and the two made their way to the chemistry lab. 

"What do you think if we just split everything up?" she suggested. "You can go first and explain what happens in the story. Then I'll explain the themes?"

"We can do that." 

"Great. We had no problem writing the essay so I think we'll be good just kind of winging the presentation part."

"Yeah I think we'll be fine," he agreed. He looked over at her hopefully. "And then after school we can talk? I have something really important to tell you."

"After school, I promise," she said as they entered the classroom and went off to their seats.

************************************

At Miss Bustier's afternoon class, Alya and Nino gave their presentation first. Then it was Adrien and Marinette's turn.

They both went up to the front of the classroom.

Adrien started with their summary.

"The short story 'The Nightingale and the Rose' is a tragic fantasy tale about a lovestruck student and a nightingale who lives in his garden."

"At the beginning of the story, the student is dismayed because he can't find a red rose to give to the girl he loves. If he brings her a rose, she will agree to dance with him at the upcoming ball. The nightingale, who is in love with the student, overhears his woes and decides to help."

"The bird searches the garden and finally finds an oak tree that produces red roses. But because it is winter, the tree has no flowers. Upon hearing the nightingale's desperation, the oak tree tells her how there is a way to _build_ a single red rose. She must spend the night singing, and impale herself on a thorn; the music will create the flower, and her blood will dye it red."

"Agreeing to sacrifice herself, the nightingale flies back to the student and tells him her plan. But the student does not understand her message and instead complains that her melody lacks emotion."

"At night, the nightingale returns to the tree. She sings her sweetest love song and impales herself on a thorn, causing a rose to blossom. Then she impales herself deeper, allowing her blood to stain it red."

"By the morning, the nightingale is dead from the thorn in her heart. The student finds the red rose and immediately brings it to his professor's daughter to declare his love."

"The girl, however, is unimpressed with the gift. She complains about how the red rose will not match her dress for the ball. Then she tells him that another suitor gave her jewels, and how they are much more expensive than flowers."

"After her rejection of him, the student throws the rose into the gutter. He vows to return to his studies and never again believe in true love."

When he was done, Adrien stepped back to allow Marinette to speak.

"The main themes of 'The Nightingale and the Rose' are love, materialism, and sacrifice," she began.

"In the story there are two versions of love. There's the love that the student has for the professor's daughter, and the love that the nightingale has for the student."

"The red rose is a symbol of love. The fact that the student is unable to find one on his own suggests that his love for the girl is not true. In contrast, the nightingale ultimately finds a red rose because her love for the student is genuine."

"Next, materialism is represented by the professor's daughter. Even though the red rose came at a great cost, the girl rejects it because she is much more impressed by jewels that have a high monetary value."

"And finally, sacrifice is represented by the nightingale. At first she sacrifices her time and energy to seek out a red rose. Then she makes the ultimate sacrifice to create the item she was seeking. And she does this willingly, only asking the student to be a true lover in return."

"The nightingale sacrificed herself for the one that she loved the most..."

Marinette suddenly had to stop speaking as other thoughts filled her head.

Adrien had sacrificed himself as Chat Noir. For her. The one that he loved the most.

No, she had to focus. She tried to push those thoughts from her mind and cleared her throat. "She sacrificed herself because she believed in love. And she gave up everything, her comfort..."

His freedom. He gave up his freedom for her.

Tears started welling up in her eyes as she continued. "Her safety..."

His best friend. Without his ring, he didn't have Plagg anymore.

"Her future..."

His happiness. He loved every second of fighting next to Ladybug to defend Paris.

"And her life," she choked out, trying to contain a sob.

Adrien made the ultimate sacrifice for her. His life as Chat Noir was gone.

Marinette looked down momentarily. By now everyone in the class noticed the change in her demeanor. Adrien stood silently behind her, his heart aching as he listened. 

"By sacrificing herself, the nightingale makes the love that she believes in and sings about a reality," she continued, her voice cracking. "What we can learn from the story is that true love is possible, but only if sacrifices are made."

She reached up to wipe away a falling tear. "So those are the main themes of 'The Nightingale and the Rose,'" she said quickly, concluding her speech.

Complete silence throughout the classroom as the presentation ended.

After a moment, Miss Bustier spoke. "Well, what a wonderful analysis. Adrien and Marinette, you two can sit back down. Let's have Alix and Max go next."

Adrien made his way to his seat. Marinette walked towards the door and left the classroom, not looking back. 

In the hallway she quickened her pace and ran to the girl's bathroom. Once inside she leaned her back against the wall, sliding down until she was sitting on the floor. Then she tipped her head forward to her knees and cried.

Tikki popped out of her purse. "Oh Marinette," she whispered. 

The girl looked up at her. "Tikki, how did this turn into such a mess? We were so happy together, and now we're both miserable. Not to mention that Ladybug has no partner anymore. I'm just trying to do the right thing."

"I think that maybe it's time for you to try something different Marinette. You've been trying so hard to keep Adrien from finding out your secret identity, why don't you just tell him and get it over with?"

"What are you talking about? If he finds out who I am then he'll get akumatized again. That's what I'm trying to prevent!"

"You're trying to prevent _Chat Noir_ from getting akumatized. That can't happen if there _is_ no Chat Noir anymore," the kwami reasoned.

Marinette blinked at her. "Oh my gosh Tikki, you're right. Even if Adrien gets upset, Hawk Moth wouldn't realize who he is and he wouldn't become Chat Blanc again." She smiled through the tears. "Adrien would just need to find out when he doesn't have his ring."

"Like right now?" Tikki asked, winking at her. 

Marinette paused as she caught her breath. Then she nodded.


	18. An Abandoned Backpack, A Flower and A Dinner Invitation

Marinette never came back to class.

After the final bell rang Alya went to the girl's bathroom to try and find her, but she wasn't there. Then she took a quick look in the courtyard before going back to Miss Bustier's classroom.

"I can't find her," Alya told Adrien and Nino.

Adrien's heart sank. She had promised him that they would talk after school. "Thanks for checking Alya," he said quietly.

"Look Adrien, I don't know what's going on between you two, but you can't give up on Marinette," Alya said. "She has loved you too much for too long. Whatever happened, make it right so you can be together again."

"Just be yourself, dude," Nino added. "That's how Marinette fell in love with you in the first place."

"Thanks guys. I'm going to wait here for a few more minutes to see if she comes back for her backpack. I'll see you tomorrow."

Alya and Nino said their goodbyes and left the classroom, leaving Adrien all alone. He went up to Marinette's seat and packed up all of her things. When he was done, he waited a minute before trudging to the hallway and down the stairs.

Once outside he went over to his bodyguard. "I'm just going to drop Marinette's backpack off at her house. I'll be right back."

His bodyguard grunted at him in reply.

Adrien walked the short distance to her house and went inside the bakery. Like usual, Sabine was at the counter. "Adrien, what a wonderful surprise!" she announced at seeing him.

"Hi Mrs Cheng, Marinette left this at school. I just wanted to bring it home for her," he said, handing her the bag.

"That's strange, I didn't even see her. She must be up in her room. Would you like me to go get her?"

"Oh no, you don't have to do that. Just please tell her that I stopped by."

"I will dear," Sabine replied as he left.

Adrien almost made it back to the town car when he heard a noise that made his heart skip a beat. He looked up to see Marinette running towards him.

"Adrien!" she called again before stopping in front of him. "I'm sorry I'm late. I needed to find something."

"You... needed to find something?" he asked, clearly confused.

She nodded. "For you."

He was shocked. "Marinette, you didn't have to get me anything."

"Yes I did," she insisted. "Adrien... I need to tell you something, and I'm afraid it's going to upset you."

Now he was even more confused. "What is it?"

She took a step towards him and glanced around quickly, making sure that no one else was around. "Adrien..." she started, tears in her eyes again.

"Marinette?" He moved towards her.

She looked up at him as she struggled to speak. "Adrien, I..." She cleared her throat. "I'm..."

"It's okay, you can tell me."

Marinette shook her head and looked down. After a second she reached over to her purse, unclasped it, and pulled out a single red rose.

Adrien looked down and stopped breathing at seeing the flower in her hand. His eyes went back up to meet hers.

Not saying anything, she took two steps backwards and kneeled down on one knee. Then she held the rose out towards him.

He took a small step back as the feeling of déjà vu swept over him. This scene was way too familiar, except that the roles were reversed. He was always the one on the other side holding out the rose. This couldn't possibly mean what he was thinking. There was no way.

Marinette looked up at him, her lip quivering slightly. "I'm sorry Kitty," she whispered.

At hearing those words Adrien broke out into a huge smile. He grabbed the hand that was holding out the flower and pulled her to her feet. "Are you serious? You're Ladybug?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her.

She nodded, trying to hold back the tears.

He scrunched up his face as tears came to his eyes too. "I can't believe this. This is so amazing."

Marinette's strained face softened a little. She looked at him in shock. "You... you're not upset?"

"How could I be upset? The girl I used to love is the same girl that I currently love. This is the best moment of my life!"

The amount of relief that Marinette felt was immense. Now she was _definitely_ going to cry. "Really?" she asked as a tear fell.

Adrien nodded and then put his hand to her cheek. "Can I kiss you now?" he asked desperately.

She leaned her head into his hand. "Yes."

He quickly pulled her closer and kissed her. It felt like it had been forever since he had those sweet lips on his. Could there be a more perfect moment than this? His Lady and his Princess were one and the same. And she was in love with him. And he was in love with her. And they were together.

When they finally separated, Adrien spoke again. "I love you Marinette. I don't ever want to be away from you again. Will you please come over to my house with me today?"

She smiled up at him through her tears. "I would love to. I... I just have to go ask my parents." She stepped back and held the rose out to him. "You can have your gift now."

"I'll keep it forever," he said, taking it from her and smelling it.

Marinette laughed as she tried to clean up her face. "Come on, silly Kitty." She grabbed his other hand and they interlaced their fingers as they walked.

Once Marinette came through the door of the bakery, her mother looked up and saw her. "Oh there you are..." Sabine started to say before stopping. She tried to contain the huge smile that suddenly came to her face. "Oh Adrien, you're back."

Marinette turned to him, confused. "Back? Were you here earlier?"

"I uh, stopped by a few minutes ago to drop off your backpack. You left it in class."

"Oh right. Thanks, I guess," she said awkwardly.

"So what are you two up to?" Sabine asked, her eyes going back and forth between the couple.

"Me and Adrien just bumped into each other outside and he invited me over to his house this afternoon. Would it be okay if I go?"

"Let me go check with your father," she said deviously. She poked her head around to the kitchen. "Tom, would you mind coming out here for a moment?"

Seconds later, Tom came around the corner. His eyes immediately landed on Marinette and Adrien, who were still holding hands. He smiled widely. "So... another school project, huh?"

Marinette put her palm up to her forehead in exasperation and let out an unintelligible mumble.

Both of her parents chuckled. "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist!" Tom declared. "Adrien, it's great to see you again. We missed you this past week."

"Thank you Mr Dupain," Adrien replied. "I missed being here," he added, looking lovingly at his girlfriend. "I was wondering if Marinette could come over to my house for dinner."

"I think that will be fine. What do you think, dear?" he asked his wife.

"That's fine with me. Just let me pack up a few things for you to bring with you."

"Thank you so much Mrs Cheng."

"It's no problem, son," Tom said. "You're welcome to anything you want here. Food, drinks, our daughter's hand in marriage..."

"Papa!" Marinette yelled, her face turning bright red.

Sabine laughed lightly as she finished packing up a box of food. "Here you go sweetie, have fun at Adrien's."

"Thanks Maman," the girl grumbled, taking the box from her.

"Bye kids!" Tom said, waving as Marinette pulled Adrien out the door.

They walked back to the town car.

"Oh my gosh, they are so embarrassing!"

"Don't be embarrassed. It's good to know that I already have your parent's permission to marry you."

Marinette let go of his hand and jabbed him on the shoulder. "Adrien!"

"What?" he asked innocently. "It's just good to know."

She rolled her eyes as they reached the car.

************************************

Nathalie was sitting at her desk when she heard Adrien come home from school. She ambled out to the foyer but stopped suddenly at seeing Marinette with him. And they were holding hands.

"Ma... Marinette," she stuttered. "I didn't know you were coming over today."

Adrien spoke. "I invited her. Father said that she was welcome to come over anytime, so I figured that today was a perfect day." He smiled over at Marinette.

"Of course. Let me go get your father." Nathalie went back into the study and closed the door behind her.

Marinette turned towards Adrien. "I can't believe that your father said that I could visit. I thought he usually didn't allow anyone to come over."

"He usually doesn't. I think that he really likes you. I mean, what's not to like?"

She giggled and leaned closer to him. He put his free hand up to her face. They both stared at the other until the study door opened.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng," Gabriel said, walking towards them. "Welcome back to our home. I hope that you plan on staying for dinner tonight."

"That would be wonderful, thank you Mr Agreste. And I brought more desserts from my parent's bakery."

"I'll take those from you," Nathalie said, grabbing the box.

"Well, why don't you two go up to Adrien's room until the food is ready?" Gabriel said.

"Thank you Father!" Adrien pulled Marinette by her hand up the stairs and to his room.

When they were gone, Gabriel looked over at Nathalie and nodded. Then he went back to his study.


	19. Tangled Hair and Flying Food

There were a lot of things that Adrien and Marinette should have talked about when they went up to Adrien's room.

They should have talked about whether or not Adrien would continue being Chat Noir. They should have talked about why Marinette was afraid to reveal her identity. They should have talked about why there hadn't been any akuma attacks lately. They should have talked about what their plan would be moving forward.

But they didn't talk about any of those things. In fact, they barely talked at all. Their mouths were much too busy. After all, they had an entire week of missed kisses to make up for.

Once they were inside of the room, Adrien quickly pressed his lips into hers. Then he guided her over to the couch. He didn't dare bring her to his bed, even though the thought crossed his mind for a moment.

The couch was good enough. Spacious and comfortable, it would suffice for the job. He just needed a place where Marinette could relax as he showered her with kisses.

She deserved to be taken care of. Every second of every day she seemed to be taking care of others around her. Her friends, her classmates, the kwamis, the citizens of Paris, it never ended.

Now Adrien would be there for her. He would be the one to take care of the most caring person in Paris.

The knock at the door finally broke them apart. They quickly straightened up, trying to pretend that they were innocently sitting on the couch.

"Dinner will be ready in five minutes," Nathalie announced when she came in.

"We'll be right there," Adrien said, attempting to make his voice sound normal.

Not fooled for a second, Nathalie sighed and left the room.

Adrien looked at Marinette with a smirk. "I guess we need to take a break."

"I guess so," she giggled. She reached up and pulled the two elastics out of her hair. Shaking it out, she ran her fingers through the strands to untangle them.

Adrien's breath caught in his chest at watching her. "You're so unbelievably beautiful when you wear your hair down."

Her cheeks blushed slightly. "Is that why you messed up my hair, so I would take it down?"

He laughed. "I wish I was that smart. You know I messed up your hair because I can't keep my _paws_ off of you," he commented, leaning towards her.

"Wow, I really did not think this decision through," she deadpanned.

"Oh come on _Purr_ incess, you know that my puns are _hiss_ terical."

She finished fixing her hair. "Silly Kitty, that's enough of that."

He stuck out his lower lip in a pout.

Leaning forward, she gave him a quick kiss. "You're so cute when you're pouting." Then she grabbed his hand and pulled him up with her.

"Wait," he said, stopping her from going towards the door. "Would you, um... would you mind..." he trailed off.

"Mind... what?"

"Um, would you transform?" he asked bashfully.

Marinette didn't respond for a second but then burst out laughing.

"I'm sorry," Adrien continued. "I still can't believe that it's you."

"Fine, but just real quick. Tikki, come say hi to Adrien."

The red and black kwami popped out of Marinette's purse. "It's nice to see you again," she squeaked.

"It's nice to see you too," he replied with a huge smile.

"Ready?" Marinette asked him.

He nodded excitedly.

"Tikki, spots on." With a flash of red light, Ladybug appeared where Marinette was standing a moment ago.

"Wow," Adrien said dreamily.

She laughed again. "Are you all set now?"

"Let me do one thing first," he said before pulling her close and kissing her. He let out a happy sigh after they separated. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that."

Ladybug smiled at him. "Alright, we have to go. Spots off." A second later, Marinette reappeared.

Adrien gazed at her. "Now there's my beautiful girlfriend," he purred as he went up to kiss her again.

But she leaned back. "Girlfriend, huh? Are you sure?" she asked playfully. "Seems like you have a thing for Ladybug the way you were kissing her just now."

"Can you blame me?" he replied, playing along. "Her costume leaves very little to the imagination, you know," he added, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

She scoffed. "Like you can talk, Mister Skin-Tight Leather."

"Ohhhh, so you _were_ checking me out. I knew it," he said smugly.

"Ha! You wish. I was way too distracted by this sweet oblivious boy in my class. Can you believe that he never even noticed all of _this_?" she asked, stepping back and posing for him.

"What an idiot," he agreed, moving up to her again and wrapping his arms around her. "Good thing you ended up with me instead. I promise to notice, and appreciate, every part of you Princess."

He pulled her in for one last kiss. After a minute they finally went downstairs together, hand-in-hand.

Gabriel was at the bottom of the steps waiting for them. "I'm so glad that you decided to come over again, Miss Dupain-Cheng. Judging by the fact that you're here, I'm assuming that you and Adrien are continuing with your relationship?"

"Yes we are," she responded.

"And I assume that you remember my request for keeping things out of the public eye?"

"Of course, Mr Agreste."

"Excellent," Gabriel continued. "Well then, I have a present for you. Now I know that you felt uncomfortable with the last one because it was so expensive but rest assured, this one is much more practical." He held out another black jewelry box to her.

"Really, Mr Agreste," she argued. "You don't need to get me anything."

"It's okay Marinette. You deserve it," Adrien said, smiling at her.

She glared at him for a second before giving in. "Alright, thank you," she said, taking the box. Opening it slowly, she breathed a sigh of relief when her eyes landed on the gift inside. It wasn't earrings.

"It's beautiful!" she exclaimed, showing Adrien the gold necklace with a large round pendant. "Thank you Mr Agreste."

"Yes, thank you!" Adrien repeated.

"You're very welcome," Gabriel replied. "Why don't you try it on? Let's see how it looks."

She nodded and removed the necklace from the box. Adrien took it and put it around her neck, clasping it for her.

"It looks so good," he beamed.

"Yes, it's quite stunning on you," Gabriel added. "Something simple and understated that you can wear all the time."

Marinette nodded in agreement.

"Now, let's go eat. You must be hungry."

The three of them made their way into the dining room. Adrien hurried over to the table and pulled out the chair next to his for Marinette to sit in.

She giggled. "Why, thank you Sir," she joked, stepping back to bow towards him.

Unfortunately, Nathalie was walking into the room behind her carrying two dinner plates. The meal was a version of boeuf bourguignon, a traditional French dish of beef braised in red wine, garnished with onions, mushrooms and bacon.

Marinette bumped right into her, causing Nathalie to stumble backwards and the plates to go flying up into the air. The food landed all over them and the plates crashed to the floor, breaking into pieces.

Complete silence filled the room for a moment.

Marinette was horrified. "I... I'm so sorry, Miss Sancoeur." She dropped to the floor and quickly started cleaning up the mess.

"No it's alright, I'll take care of this," Nathalie said, kneeling down.

"I'm sorry," the girl repeated. "Please, let me."

Gabriel walked over to them. "Both of you, stop!" he demanded.

The two looked up at him.

"Nathalie, go back to your room and change. Adrien, take Marinette to your bathroom to get cleaned up. Someone else will take care of this."

Nathalie nodded before getting up and leaving the room.

"I'm so sorry Mr Agreste. Please don't be upset with her, this was completely my fault," Marinette begged.

"Don't be sorry, it was an accident. Now go on, go clean yourself up," Gabriel told her.

Adrien grabbed her hand. "Come on," he said gently.

She reluctantly let him guide her away. They went upstairs and to the bathroom inside of his room.

Adrien saw tears in her eyes as he helped her rinse her hair in the sink. "Please don't cry Marinette."

She muffled a sob. "Nathalie is going to hate me. And your father is going to hate me. I just knew that I was going to mess everything up."

"Don't say that! You heard my father, he knows it was an accident."

"He said that to be nice," she argued.

He looked at her seriously. "My father is _never_ nice."

A small laugh escaped her lips as she wiped her eyes. "Well, why is he so nice to me then?"

"I don't know," Adrien continued. "Probably because he sees how wonderful you are and how happy you make me."

She gave him a weak smile. "You're so good to me Adrien." Then she hugged him, resting her head against his chest.

"Don't worry Princess, everything will be fine. Just like I told you last night," he reassured her, stroking the back of her head.

She laughed lightly again. "I can't believe that was last night. It seems like so long ago."

He paused and tilted his chin into her hair. "Yeah, it does."


	20. A Pulsing Vein, Opposite Conversations and A Beautiful Heart

Adrien walked Marinette down the stairs to the foyer, his arm around her shoulder. When they reached the door he gave her a big hug. "You don't have to leave, you know."

"I know," she said, pulling away. "I'm just so embarrassed. Plus, my hair still smells like onions."

"I don't mind," he said softly, leaning in towards her.

She smiled. "You're a good liar," she whispered before kissing him.

Adrien quickly put his hand to her face and deepened the kiss. Marinette pressed herself up against him as their interaction heated up. They both completely lost themselves in the moment.

In fact, they were so preoccupied that neither of them heard the footsteps that approached. Gabriel cleared his throat loudly when he was right in front of them.

It was hard to tell who was more embarrassed as they jumped apart. Adrien put his hand to the back of his neck and Marinette blushed furiously. Neither of them would meet Gabriel's stare when they turned towards him. "It seems as if you're leaving Miss Dupain-Cheng."

"Yes Mr Agreste," she squeaked out.

"I think that's a good idea. But you'll have to come over another day for dinner. Hopefully it will be slightly less eventful than this one."

All Marinette could do was nod. She was still too embarrassed to look him in the eyes.

"Adrien, say goodnight to your girlfriend," Gabriel continued.

He turned towards her. "Goodnight Marinette."

"Have a pleasant evening Miss Dupain-Cheng."

"Thank you," she said before hurrying out the door.

Once they were alone Gabriel looked at his son. "You and Marinette seem... _close_."

"Yeah, isn't she wonderful?" he sighed happily, keeping his eyes on the door where Marinette disappeared.

"She's a fine young lady," his father replied, looking at the door as well.

Adrien smiled brightly at him. "You seem to like her."

"I do like her," he responded, his face stoic.

Adrien smiled even brighter. "I'm really glad that you feel that way. I mean, she's probably going to end up being your daughter-in-law someday."

At hearing those words, Gabriel spun his head around to look at him. "What?" he demanded.

"Your daughter-in-law. Obviously we're way too young to get married right now, but eventually I'm sure we will."

A vein started pulsating out of the side of Gabriel's forehead. "Don't be absurd Adrien! This is nothing more than a little crush. You can't possibly think that the two of you would ever get married."

His face fell. "Of course I think we'll get married. I'm in love with her."

"You... this... absolutely not..." Gabriel stuttered before he regained his composure. He took a deep breath. "You're not in love with this girl, you don't even understand what love is. She's just a baker's daughter, for goodness sake. You're never going to marry someone like her, so get these ridiculous ideas out of your head immediately!"

Adrien then watched as his father turned and stormed off to his study.

He remained in the foyer, stunned. So his father really didn't like Marinette after all. But it didn't make any sense.

His father was the one who originally invited her over to the house. Although he didn't seem happy about it at first, he was so excited the morning of their first meeting. Then he got her not one, but two presents. Really nice presents. Then he kept insisting that she come over for dinner. Plus, he was always so nice to her, and he was never nice to anyone.

And after all of that, it turns out that he didn't even like her. And he definitely didn't approve of them being together. At least not for the long run. It made zero sense.

Nathalie walked down the stairs to the foyer and stopped. "Where's your father?"

Adrien groaned quietly. "He got mad and stormed off to his study."

"What did he get mad about?"

"Marinette," he said, not elaborating. "Why is he being so nice to her if he doesn't even like her?"

"Of course he likes her," she tried to argue.

"No he doesn't. He just pretends that he does."

She sighed. "Your father is going through a lot right now. Try to cut him some slack, okay?"

Adrien didn't say anything for a minute. His father didn't deserve any slack. Not after what he said about Marinette, calling her 'just a baker's daughter.' If only he knew who she really was. Boy, would he feel foolish if he ever found out.

"I just don't understand why he can't see how happy we are together, and how much we love each other," he said, looking at the front door again.

Nathalie stared at him. "You're in love with her?" she asked incredulously.

Adrien nodded. "Yeah, I am. She's my Emilie," he said quietly.

A silence fell over them for a minute before Nathalie cleared her throat. "Well, you should probably go start on your schoolwork. I'll bring some food up to your room for you."

The boy peeled his eyes away from the door and turned around. "Thanks Nathalie," he said as he went upstairs.

************************************

A few blocks away, Marinette arrived home. She found her mother and father sitting on the couch in the living room.

"So how was Adrien's?" Sabine asked, looking excitedly at her daughter.

Marinette groaned. "Ugh, you don't want to know!"

"Oh no, did something happen between you two again?"

"No, no! Nothing like that," the girl explained. "I just managed to make a _complete_ fool of myself in front of his father. I knocked two entire plates of food all over myself and Nathalie. "

Tom laughed. "Well with your clumsiness, it was bound to happen sooner or later."

Marinette joined in on the laughing and sat down next to them on the couch. "Yeah I guess you're right."

Sabine cocked an eyebrow at her daughter. "So... are you and Adrien back together?"

She smiled shyly. "Yes we are."

"Good. You two complement each other, and it's obvious that you're both really in love."

"Thanks Maman."

"Yes," Tom agreed. "He's a fine young man. And he's _almost_ good enough to date you."

Marinette smiled wider. "Thanks Papa, that really means a lot coming from you."

"You're welcome sweetie," he said, winking over at her.

************************************

When he finished eating, Adrien lay on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. He twiddled the rose that Marinette gave him around in his hand.

It was so quiet in his room without Plagg. He was really missing having his best friend there with him. But not as much as he was missing his girlfriend.

A huge smile spread across his face as he thought about the day. His whole world changed in only a few hours.

Marinette was Ladybug. He still couldn't believe that it was her, and that she had been right next to him the whole time.

And to think, Ladybug had always been in love with him. She rejected Chat Noir because she was too in love with Adrien to give him a chance.

And he was too in love with Ladybug to even pay any attention to the beautiful girl who very _obviously_ had a huge crush on him (or so he was told).

Isn't it crazy how life turns out sometimes?

As he thought about the day he suddenly couldn't wait any longer. He needed to hear Marinette's sweet voice again. He got up from his bed, walked over to his desk and placed the rose down next to their picture. Grabbing his phone, he went back to his bed and called her.

She picked up on the second ring. "Hey stranger," she teased.

"Hey Marinette, I miss you so much," he responded, smiling into his phone.

"I miss you too. I hope your father wasn't too mad about us making out."

Adrien groaned. "No he wasn't, but he got mad about something I said to him after you left."

"What did you say?"

He paused. He just couldn't bring himself to explain what happened, it would upset her too much. "It doesn't matter. I know my father well enough to know that he's never going to be happy no matter what I do. He doesn't care about me, he only cares about himself and his image."

"Adrien, don't say that," Marinette said quietly.

"It's true, it's always been true. I'm just a pawn to him, something he can use to improve his business and make more money. It's been the same my whole life. But that's okay, because I have you now. As long as we're together I don't care about anything else. It's you and me against the world, remember?"

"Yeah I remember," she sighed. "Oh Adrien, I'm so sorry."

"Don't you ever be sorry Princess. You're the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me. I don't need anyone else in my life but you. You make me so incredibly happy and I love you so much."

"I love you too."

His heart fluttered as he listened to those words. "Will you say that again for me please?"

She laughed through the phone. "I love you Adrien Agreste."

He laughed too. "Again?"

More laughter. "I love you, I love you, I love you! I love your gorgeous green eyes and your perfect smile. I love your sense of humor... even the puns," she chuckled. "I love your intelligence. I love your integrity. But most of all, I love your kind, compassionate heart. That beautiful heart that made me fall in love with you so long ago."

It took a few seconds for Adrien to respond. "Wow Princess, how am I ever supposed to beat that?"

"You can't," she giggled. "So don't even try!"


	21. A Gooey Sauce and A Charade

"Anyway, I should go. I'm really tired," Marinette continued.

Adrien felt a pain in his chest. "I wish I had my ring right now. I'd already be on my way to your house so I could climb into bed with you."

"Adrien!" she reprimanded.

"Not like that! I just want to be next to you, that's all."

She sighed. "You're so sweet."

"And if something just happens while I'm there, well I wouldn't be upset about it."

Marinette almost dropped her phone. "You did not just say that!" she laugh-yelled at him.

"Well, _paw_ don me for being so _fur_ ward with you."

She finished laughing. "I'm hanging up the phone now."

He let out an exaggerated whine.

"I'll see you tomorrow," she said before she disconnected.

Marinette smiled to herself as she put her phone down. After a minute she went over to the bathroom. Checking her reflection in the mirror, she saw stains on her shirt and jacket from the food. Hopefully they would wash out.

Her heart sank when she noticed that her new necklace had some sauce on it too. She barely had the present for two minutes before she managed to get it dirty.

She unclasped it from her neck and ran it under the faucet.

Most of the sauce came off easily, but some of it was really gooey and wouldn't wash off.

"Oh, come on," Marinette muttered to herself as she rubbed her fingers over it. There was still a streak of sauce on the indentation going around the pendant.

She moved the necklace up to her face so she could see it better. Using her fingernail, she scraped along the indentation trying to dig out the sauce.

She scraped and scraped, but she soon realized that it wasn't only sauce that she was scraping off. There was also a clearish-white sticky material coming off with it. When she scraped all the way around, the pendant split open. Marinette froze, afraid that she broke it.

Then a look of confusion crossed her face at realizing that the pendant was meant to open, but seemed to have been glued shut. She pried it fully apart to reveal a compartment. A compartment that wasn't empty.

She frowned as she saw the item inside. It was a small black rectangular cuboid.

Turning the pendant upside down, she dumped the object into her hand and examined it. "What is this?" she whispered to herself.

On one side she could just make out three small letters that were etched into the object.

G P S

Who's initials were G.P.S.? And why would this thing be inside her necklace?

Marinette went back to her bedroom where her kwami was resting. "Tikki, do you know what this is?"

She flew up and looked at the black object in her hand. "No, I have no idea. It doesn't really look like anything."

"Can you think of anyone with the initials G.P.S.? It belongs to them."

"Wait," the kwami said, moving closer to her. "It _belongs_ to G.P.S., or it _is_ a GPS?"

Marinette blinked. "Oh, I didn't think of that," she muttered before lifting it back up to look at it again. "A Global Positioning System? This thing is a tracking device?"

"I guess so. Where did you find it?" Tikki asked.

"It was hidden inside of the necklace that Adrien's father gave me today. Why on earth would he want to track me?" Marinette asked, shaking her head. "He can't possibly be _that_ overprotective of Adrien that he would need to know where I am every second of the day. What does he think? That I would go out and see other guys behind his back?"

Tikki shrugged her tiny shoulders.

"Ugh, this is so weird," the girl continued. "I don't get it, he's been so nice to me. I thought that maybe he liked me. I... I guess it was all an act."

"I'm sorry Marinette," Tikki said quietly.

She sighed. "It's okay. I guess it's not the end of the world if his father doesn't trust me. At least Adrien does."

"That's the right attitude to have!"

Marinette nodded. "Thanks Tikki. Anyway, I really need to take a shower. Why don't you go to bed? I'll be there soon."

She went back to the bathroom, showered and changed into her pajamas.

Tikki was already asleep by the time she climbed into bed. Completely exhausted, she closed her eyes.

But she couldn't fall asleep.

It had been a long day with so many twists and turns. It went from being a bad day, to a good day, to a bad day, to a good day and finally back to a bad day.

It was just way too strange. Gabriel Agreste, the famous fashion designer, hiding a tracking device in her necklace.

Her muddled thoughts wouldn't leave her alone. As much as she didn't want to be bothered by what happened, she was.

Not only was Gabriel Agreste her boyfriend's father, but he was also an important person in the fashion industry. An industry that she desperately wanted to be a part of when she got older. She craved his approval.

_Sleep... sleep..._ she tried to will herself. But she just couldn't. The whole situation was gnawing at her.

He was so incredibly nice to her. He got her presents. He complimented her. He even went so far as to ask for her help to find someone for his new ad campaign.

Marinette smiled. When Gabriel originally described what he was looking for in a model, she thought of Chat Noir. The idea was hilarious at the time, but it turns out that he _would_ have been perfect after all. She laughed internally for a second before going back to her thoughts.

Gabriel even went so far as to ask for her help to find Chat Noir.

Her eyes flew open.

Wait, why did she just put it like that? He wasn't looking for Chat Noir, he was looking for a model. A model that looks exactly _like_ Chat Noir. And therefore, a model that looks exactly like Adrien.

That was weird. If that was the case, why didn't he just say that he needed someone that looked like Adrien? That would have been much easier.

Marinette racked her memory. What exactly did Gabriel say?

_"_ _Maybe someone you go to school with? Or maybe someone you've worked with before?_ _"_

Worked with before? She was fourteen years old, she didn't have a job. Yeah, she would sometimes help her parents in the bakery, but that was it.

But she worked with Chat Noir.

Wait, this was ridiculous. First of all, Gabriel would have to know that she was Ladybug. Which was impossible. And secondly, why would he be looking for Chat Noir?

But... if he _was_ looking for Chat Noir, why not say 'I'm looking for Chat Noir?' Why describe him perfectly and try to coax her into saying his name?

Because he wanted his real name.

Whoa whoa whoa, back up. There's absolutely no reason why anyone would need to know Chat Noir's real name. No one except...

Marinette suddenly bolted upright in bed. "No," she whispered. "There's no way."

She reached over to her kwami and shook her awake. "Tikki, would it possible for Hawk Moth to akumatize himself in his civilian form?"

Tikki looked at her through half closed eyes. "I guess it's possible. If he detransformed and removed the Miraculous before the akuma touched him."

"Oh no," Marinette squealed, covering her mouth.

"What? What's wrong?" Tikki asked.

Her mind was racing as more memories came to her.

_"_ _You definitely seem like the type of person that knows how to keep a secret."_

Ladybug definitely knew how to keep a secret.

_"_ _Nathalie and I have a present for you."_

Nathalie Sancoeur, his assistant, who helped him with everything. Just like Mayura helped Hawk Moth.

And the first present, a pair of earrings _._

_"It's the least we could do after everything that you've done for us._ _"_

Done for us? What did that mean? She had never done anything for them.

Then there was the other gift, a necklace with a tracking device hidden inside.

_"_ _Something simple and understated that you can wear all the time."_

He wanted to see where she was going.

But... Gabriel Agreste was nothing but nice to her.

_"_ _He said that to be nice."_

_"My father is never nice."_

_"Well, why is he so nice to me then?"_

He was nice so she would keep visiting the house. He wanted her around so he could keep an eye on her.

Wait no. This was completely spiraling out of control. If they really were Hawk Moth and Mayura, and if they knew that she was Ladybug, why didn't they just take her earrings when she was there? The two of them could have easily overpowered her when she wasn't transformed.

_"_ _I'm looking for a boy around your age."_

Chat Noir.

They didn't know Chat Noir's real identity. And they needed his ring just as much as they needed her earrings.

That's what this whole charade had been about. They knew _her_ identity, but they didn't know his.

They didn't know _Adrien's_ identity.

Gabriel didn't know that his own son was Chat Noir. And Adrien didn't know that his own father was Hawk Moth.

Marinette started hyperventilating.

"Marinette..." Tikki said, uneasy. "What's going on?"

She jumped out of bed and hurried over to the Miracle Box. Opening it up, she grabbed the ring inside and slid it on her finger.

"Plagg," she said, looking at the kwami. "Have you ever seen anything strange in Adrien's house?"

"Define 'strange,'" Plagg replied, stretching.

"Anything that would suggest that his father is Hawk Moth."

Tikki gasped. "You can't be serious, Marinette."

Plagg tilted his head. "His father might not be the greatest person in the world, but do you really think that he's Hawk Moth?"

"So, you've never seen anything there?" Marinette asked.

"Of course not."

She looked down, thinking. "He never leaves his house," she murmured. "What about outside? Is there a garden where he could get butterflies from?"

"There's a garden but I've never seen any butterflies," Plagg said, narrowing his eyes at her. "What's going on?"

"Adrien's father is Hawk Moth and he knows that I'm Ladybug," Marinette admitted with a sigh.

"What?" Tikki shouted.

"Think about it. Gabriel Agreste had the spellbook that Master Fu lost when he was young. He must have found the Butterfly and the Peacock Miraculouses when he discovered the book. Somehow he found out that I'm Ladybug, and that's why he keeps inviting me over to his house. That's why he hid a tracking device in the necklace he gave me. He's watching my every move."

"I don't know Marinette," Plagg said, unconvinced.

"Well what about the fact that there haven't been any akuma attacks in the past week? Since the day I first went to Adrien's house?"

The two kwamis looked at each other. "It makes sense," Tikki said.

Plagg sighed. "So what are we supposed to do?"

"First things first. I want you two to go over to the house and try to find some proof. Once we know for certain, we'll take it from there."


	22. A Window, A Plan and A Perfect World

"What exactly are we looking for?" Plagg whined to Tikki as they searched the Agreste mansion.

"I'm not sure," Tikki sighed. "But Marinette seems pretty convinced that Adrien's father is Hawk Moth. If he is, we should be able to find _something._ "

They started their search in Gabriel's study. Nothing in Nathalie's desk. And nothing suspicious in the hidden safe behind Emilie's painting besides the spellbook, which they already knew about.

Next they went to the dining room and the kitchen. When they were done there, they flew up to the second floor.

"Well we can definitely skip Adrien's bedroom. I know it like the back of my hand," Plagg said, yawning.

"Alright, you take Gabriel's room, and I'll check Nathalie's."

The two kwamis flew off in different directions.

Plagg had never been inside of Gabriel's bedroom before. Adrien never went there, and there was no point for him to go by himself. After all, there was no food in there.

He found Adrien's father asleep in his bed. Even though he had been living in the same house as him for over a year, Plagg didn't really know that much about him. Besides a few meals here and there, he rarely spent any time with his son. Plagg knew how much it upset Adrien that he wasn't closer to his father. And that upset Plagg. But that's the way it had always been.

A quick search through all of his belongings came up empty. There was absolutely nothing that tied him to Hawk Moth.

Back in the hallway he met up with Tikki.

"Anything?" she asked hopefully.

"Nope. You?"

"Nothing in Nathalie's room either. I guess that we should head upstairs."

Phasing through the ceiling, they went to the top floor of the house. No evidence there either.

"Face it Sugar Cube, Marinette's just overreacting. Adrien's father is _not_ Hawk Moth."

Tikki let out a loud sigh. "But what she said made so much sense. Why else would he want to track her?"

"Who knows what goes through that crazy mind of his!"

Tikki didn't look convinced. "Well we should at least check out the garden, don't you think? Just to be certain?"

"Fine," he said. "But after that we're going back to Marinette's house and going to bed."

She nodded before they flew outside.

It was dark out, but they could still see from the moonlight shining down. Zooming around the house, their search came up empty yet again.

"Maybe we can't see any butterflies because it's nighttime and they're all resting?" Tikki suggested.

"Adrien comes out here all the time and I've never seen any," Plagg said. "I think it's time that we give up. I mean, Marinette's a smart girl, but this time she got it wrong."

Tikki's frowned. "Alright, let's go," she said reluctantly.

Plagg flew off. The red and black kwami sighed and looked around one last time. Her eyes stopped on a large circular window on the back of the house.

She stayed staring at it until Plagg flew back over to her. "Come on, Sugar Cube!"

"Where does that window lead to?" she asked, jutting her chin out towards it. "I don't remember seeing any round windows inside."

Plagg looked over at it and tilted his head sideways. "Huh. I have no idea. I never thought about it before."

They glanced at each other.

"That's strange," Plagg continued.

"Definitely strange," Tikki agreed quietly. "I guess we're not done searching yet."

************************************

Back in her bedroom, Marinette had fallen asleep. Wearing both Miraculouses simultaneously took an enormous amount of energy. So even though she had planned on staying awake and being on guard, drowsiness easily snuck up on her.

"Marinette, wake up!"

The girl opened her eyes to find Tikki and Plagg floating in front of her face. She sat up immediately. "Please tell me that I'm crazy," she begged.

The kwamis looked at each other briefly.

"You were right," Tikki whispered.

Marinette scrunched up her face in anguish and wrapped her arms around herself. Tears quickly came to her eyes.

Both kwamis flew over and hugged her. "I'm sorry Marinette," Plagg said.

"This is horrible," she sobbed. "What are we going to do?"

"You could always just call the police and let them deal with it," Tikki suggested. "That way you won't have to face him again."

"No," Marinette said, shaking her head. "If we call the police then Gabriel and Nathalie will be arrested, and Adrien will have no one left."

Tikki and Plagg exchanged glances again. "Well... he might have someone," Tikki said slowly.

She looked at them confused. "Who?"

"His mother."

Marinette shook her head again. "His mother disappeared last year, you know that."

"She didn't disappear. We found her in a secret part of the house," Plagg explained softly. "She's still alive, but seems to be in some sort of coma."

"Oh my gosh," Marinette cried, putting her hands to her head. "Are you trying to tell me that Adrien's mother has been in the house the whole time, and that he has no idea?"

He nodded solemnly.

"This is a nightmare."

"Everything is going to be okay Marinette," Tikki said. "We're going to figure this out together. Gabriel doesn't know that we know who he is. So there's no rush. We'll take our time and figure out a plan."

Marinette took in a deep breath. "You're right. We shouldn't do anything too hasty. But first of all, we need to get you out of here Plagg," she said, looking at the kwami. "We need to separate the Miraculouses so if Gabriel tries anything, he won't be able to get both. I'll keep wearing my earrings so they don't get suspicious."

Tikki and Plagg nodded.

"And we'll also need to find a different place to put the Miracle Box," she continued. "It's definitely not safe here."

"That's a great plan," Tikki said.

Plagg came right up in front of Marinette. "Are you going to tell Adrien?" he asked quietly.

The girl shrugged. "I don't know," she said, her voice cracking.

************************************

"Adrien..."

It was just past three o'clock in the morning. Adrien was fast asleep in his bed when he was awoken by the sound of someone saying his name.

"Adrien," Ladybug whispered again, slightly louder.

He opened his eyes to find the superhero leaning over him. Her face was only centimeters from his. He looked quickly around, noticing that it was the middle of the night and that he was still in his bed. His eyes met hers again before he reached his hand up to caress her cheek. "This is so hot," he whispered.

Ladybug groaned and rolled her eyes. "Adrien!" she sighed in exasperation.

"I'm sorry," he replied. "But you have to know that I've fantasized about this moment, right?"

"Now is _not_ the time."

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry Princess. What's going on?"

She tilted her head slightly. "I just... wanted to see you," she whispered, trying to keep the tears away.

Adrien smiled at her. "You're too wonderful."

She leaned her face into his hand. "I love you so much. You know that I'll always love you, and I'll always be here for you, right?"

"I know Princess," he said lovingly, rubbing his thumb across her cheek. "Will you please detransform? I want to see you."

"Real quick," she agreed. "Spots off."

A red light revealed Marinette with Tikki by her side. "I'll give you two some privacy," the kwami said as she flew away.

Adrien smiled brighter at seeing his girlfriend in front of him. He glanced down at her pajamas before meeting her gaze. "Please stay here tonight."

She shook her head. "I can't."

"Please," he begged. "I need you here with me."

Marinette sighed and paused momentarily. "I'll stay until you fall back asleep, then I have to go." She pulled the comforter back and lay down next to him.

He immediately wrapped her up in his arms. "Oh Princess, do you really think that I'm going to fall asleep when I have you in my bed?" he asked before leaning in.

She smiled into the kiss and eagerly kissed him back. Then she put her hand to his face when they broke apart. "You should get some rest."

"I don't need rest, I need you," he responded, pushing the hair away from her eyes.

She giggled. "You already have me."

He smiled and pressed his forehead against hers. "I can't believe how lucky I am," he sighed. After a second he moved back. His smile faltered slightly when he glanced down at her neck. "You're not wearing your new necklace."

Marinette's face fell. "It uh... it got dirty from the food so I... I took it off to clean it," she forced out.

He nodded as he leaned in and gave her a quick kiss.

"I... I think I should go," she said.

His face fell too. "No, please don't go Princess. I need you here." He leaned in and kissed her lightly. "Please..." he whispered, kissing her cheek. "Don't..." he continued, kissing her forehead. "Go." He kissed the tip of her nose.

An internal battle began in her mind. She knew that she _should_ leave. For more than one reason. But it just felt so nice being there. If only it could just be the two of them, and they could forget about everything else. She closed her eyes and tried to shut her mind off as Adrien kept kissing her.

For a minute she would be in a world where Ladybug didn't exist. Chat Noir didn't exist either. And Hawk Moth and Mayura definitely didn't exist.

It would just be her and Adrien. They would be so happy.

And for a minute, the world would be perfect.


	23. An Insincere Apology and Purple Bubbles

Ladybug left Adrien's around four in the morning, before anyone else in the house would be awake.

When she got back home she detransformed and lay down in her bed. Now that the Black Cat Miraculous and the Miracle Box were out of her room, Marinette felt so much more at ease.

She closed her eyes and fell asleep, not waking up until her alarm sounded.

Three hours was definitely not enough time, but at least she got _some_ rest. She groggily silenced the alarm and got up to get dressed and use the bathroom. The very last thing that she did before leaving was something she was dreading.

After putting the tracking device back into its hidden compartment, she snapped the pendant closed and put the necklace around her neck.

Tikki watched her. "Are you sure you want to do that?"

Marinette nodded. "He needs to think that things are normal. He can't suspect that we figured anything out."

"And you're not going to tell Adrien?"

"Not yet," she replied, avoiding eye contact. She grabbed her backpack off of the floor. "We should go."

The kwami flew into her purse and Marinette went downstairs.

************************************

A few blocks away, Adrien got ready for school with a smile on his face. Having Marinette in his bed that morning was a dream come true, and he enjoyed every second of it.

He was disappointed when she insisted on leaving, but he understood. They couldn't risk anyone catching her there. There would be no way to explain how she got in his room. Nevermind the fact that his father would murder him if he found Marinette in his bed.

Once dressed and ready, he went to the bedroom door and opened it up. His father was waiting for him outside.

Adrien stopped and glared up at him.

"Adrien," Gabriel started, "I wanted to apologize for my outburst yesterday. What I said was inexcusable, and I want you to know that I'm truly sorry about what I said. Marinette is a lovely young lady and she's welcome here anytime."

Adrien kept staring at his father. He didn't believe one word that came out of his mouth. "Your apology is accepted," he lied.

Gabriel nodded. "Very well. Why don't you invite her over for dinner again tonight?"

"I will."

He nodded again. "Now that that's taken care of, let's go eat breakfast." He turned and walked downstairs, Adrien following behind.

They both sat in their places and started eating. Adrien looked up at his father every once in a while. He just didn't understand him. Why was he lying about liking Marinette? And why did he want her to come over all the time?

Maybe his father had finally gone off the deep end. Ever since his mother's disappearance, Gabriel seemed to be moving further and further away from being a sane human being.

Maybe that had something to do with the situation now. Maybe his father saw his happy relationship with Marinette and it reminded him of his wife. Maybe he was jealous of them on some level.

Adrien tried to clear his mind. He didn't really care what the reason behind it was. Marinette was his whole world now. As long as the two of them were together, nothing else mattered.

He didn't need his father's approval to continue dating Marinette. And he wouldn't need his father's permission to marry her. After he turned eighteen he would be free to do whatever he pleased. They would just have to hang in there for the next three years.

And they wouldn't need his father's money. Adrien was constantly being solicited by other modeling agencies. He would simply sign with one of them and then be able to make his own income.

Not to mention, Marinette was so talented with her fashion designs. Maybe she would become a huge success and make more money than him.

And even if none of that happened, they would be fine. Rich, poor or somewhere in the middle, they would be happy. Adrien would do anything he needed to do in order to protect and provide for her.

Whatever the future held, they would be together. Anything that happened, they would get through it. Because they had each other. That was all they needed.

With a smile Adrien finished his breakfast and left the dining room, not saying a word.

************************************

He found her in Miss Bustier's class. Running up, he pulled her to her feet and tipped her backwards in a passionate kiss.

Alya's scream of excitement alerted everyone to the fact that Adrien and Marinette were dating again.

A round of applause broke out in the classroom as he straightened her up and gazed into her eyes. "Hey," he whispered.

Marinette tried to regain her focus, but she was too busy swooning from the kiss. "Hey," she finally got out.

"Alright students!" Miss Bustier announced. "Class is starting."

Adrien guided Marinette down to her seat, then kissed her hand before letting go and sitting down.

"Way to go, dude," Nino whispered over to him, extending his fist out.

He fist bumped his friend and turned his attention to the lesson, the smile refusing to leave his face.

************************************

The couple snuck away to an empty classroom after their first class.

After a quick makeout session, Adrien pulled back to look at her. "Thank you so much for visiting me this morning. I had such a wonderful time with you."

"You're welcome," she replied, gently running her fingers around his face. "Adrien, there's something really important that we need to talk about. Will you come over to my house after school today?"

"My father actually invited you to come over for dinner tonight."

Marinette blinked at him. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"It's okay, don't be embarrassed about what happened..."

"No, it's not that," she interrupted. "It's just better if we go to my place."

Adrien nodded. "That sounds great." He pulled her in for another quick kiss.

They were about to head to class when both of their phones buzzed.

Checking the message, a whisper escaped Marinette's lips. "What in the..."

Adrien looked up at her after seeing the same alert on his phone. "There's an akuma attack. What do we do?"

She started to panic. "I... I guess I have to go."

"Do you have my ring with you?"

"No, I don't. I'll have to go alone this time."

"No way," he objected. "I'm not letting you go out there by yourself. Bring me my ring and I'll help you."

She shook her head. "You can't have your ring. That's one of the things we need to talk about later."

"I'm not letting you go out there by yourself," he repeated.

"I'll be fine," she said, determined. "You stay here and cover for me. I'll be back as soon as I can."

Adrien grabbed her hand before she could walk away. "Marinette, I can't let you go. Not without me there to protect you."

Her heart broke a little at seeing the desperation in his eyes. He just wanted to be there with her. But there was no other option.

"I'm sorry Adrien. We'll figure out a better arrangement later, but right now I need to go. I promise that I'll be okay." She leaned in and kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck. After a few seconds she pulled away. "I love you, I'll be back soon."

Adrien watched her leave, his heart aching. He wanted to go with her more than anything, but all he could do was slowly make his way to his next class.

Marinette rushed down the hallway and into the girl's bathroom. "Tikki," she said once she was inside. "Why do you think he's doing this?"

The kwami appeared in front of her. "I don't know. Maybe he's getting impatient? I mean, he thinks that you don't know Chat Noir's identity, so maybe he's going back to his old plan?"

The girl groaned. "We won't have any help this time. It's only us right now."

"I know we can do this Marinette!"

She nodded, her confidence returning. "Tikki, spots on!"

Once transformed into Ladybug, she jumped up to the window ledge and swung off with her yo-yo. She had no idea how she was going to explain why Chat Noir wouldn't be there, but she would worry about that later.

The akumatized villain was near city hall, so she was there in minutes. As soon as she landed in front of him, however, he was surrounded by purple bubbles and released from the akumatization.

Ladybug simply stared at the man left behind in disbelief.

"How... how did I get here?" he asked bewildered.

She walked up to him. "You were akumatized. But you're back to normal now."

"Oh, thank you Ladybug!"

She shook her head. "Don't thank me, I didn't do anything. Will you be okay to get back home by yourself?"

"I'll be fine. And thank you again!" he called to her as he walked away.

"But I didn't do anything," she mumbled to herself before taking off again.

Ladybug quickly swung back to school and detransformed in the girl's bathroom.

"What do you think that was all about?" Tikki asked Marinette.

"I have no idea, but right now I need to get to class." She put her palm up to her forehead. "Ugh, Mrs Mandeleiev is going to be so mad that I'm late."

Tikki gasped. "Marinette! Your necklace!"

The girl froze before slowly tilting her head to look down. Sure enough, the necklace was right there. "Oh my gosh!" she exclaimed. "That's it. He was checking to see if it was really me. That's why he called off the akuma as soon as we got there!"

"Well, that definitely explains it. And now he'll believe that you have no idea about the tracking device."

Marinette nodded. "Good. He can't suspect that anything is wrong." She took in a deep breath and sighed. "Come on Tikki, we really have to go."


	24. Never-Ending Jokes, Fear and Leverage

When school ended Adrien had bad news for Marinette.

"I'm so sorry, but my father says that I can't go over to your house today," he told her, reading the message on his phone as they walked outside.

"You're kidding," she sighed.

"Unfortunately not. He says that he wants me to come home right away, but you're still invited over of course." He shook his head. "It's like he's obsessed with you or something."

Marinette didn't reply, she simply averted his gaze.

"So what do you think?" he continued. "Will you come over today? We can talk there."

"That's not a good idea Adrien."

He sighed and wrapped his arms around her. "Please Princess. I know my father is insufferable but I really want to spend time with you."

"You... shouldn't say that..."

"It's true," he interrupted. "I've finally realized how horrible he is. All he does is lie about everything and try to manipulate everyone. And I've decided that I'm not going to let him drag me down anymore." He smiled sweetly at her. "I have more important things in my life now."

"Oh Adrien," she sighed. "Alright, I guess I'll come over..."

Adrien picked her up and spun her around wildly before putting her back down. "You're so perfect," he said.

She giggled. "I still have to ask my parents though."

"Well, come on!" he yelled, pulling her by the hand towards her house.

They were both laughing as they went inside the bakery. "Hi Maman," the girl said.

"Hi sweetie, hi Adrien," Sabine replied, smiling at the couple. "How was school today?"

"It was great," Marinette said. "We're just wondering if I could go over to Adrien's for dinner again tonight."

"You want to try dinner again? Brave girl!" she teased.

"Very funny Maman."

Sabine laughed. "Let's ask your father." She went around the corner. "Tom! Come say hello to Adrien!"

"Adrien, my boy!" Tom announced, coming to the front. "Always nice to see you."

"Thanks Mr Dupain."

"I don't think we have to be so formal anymore. Please, call us 'Tom' and 'Sabine.' I mean, we're practically family already!"

"Well thanks Tom," he said, smiling. "Could Marinette come over to my house for dinner again?"

"Of course," Tom replied. Then he looked over at his wife. "We're going to save a fortune in food costs if this keeps up."

Marinette pressed her lips together as the other three laughed.

"Alright sweetie," Sabine finally said. "Why don't you drop your backpack off in your bedroom while I pack up some things for you to bring?"

Marinette gave Adrien's hand a quick squeeze before she went upstairs. Once inside her bedroom she dropped her backpack on the floor and hurried back down, walking into a conversation between Adrien and her father.

"Well if you _knead_ the help, I can definitely be here," Adrien said.

"It never hurts to earn a little extra _dough_ ," Tom replied.

"I don't need the money but it's the _yeast_ that I could do."

"I'm sure you'll _rise_ to the occasion."

"I don't know," Adrien argued. "I might be really _crumby_ at baking."

"Well I'll always be here to help. I won't _dessert_ you!" Tom said as the two burst out laughing.

Marinette stared at them speechless.

"Oh hi sweetie," Tom continued at seeing her. "I invited Adrien to come over Saturday morning."

"He's going to teach me how to bake," Adrien explained excitedly.

"Uh okay," Marinette replied, looking over at her mother.

"I think your father found his new best friend," Sabine said, handing her a dessert box.

"Yeah I see that."

"You don't mind, do you?" Adrien asked her.

"Of course I don't mind."

"Perfect!" Tom announced. "I'm sure he'll be a legend in the _baking_!"

Marinette sighed and started dragging her boyfriend outside. "We're leaving now," she said over her shoulder.

"Thanks Tom!" Adrien yelled back. "There's no one _batter_ than you!"

When they were outside, she turned to him. "Really? Now I have to listen to baking puns on top of the cat ones?"

"You said it yourself _Purr_ incess, you love my sense of humor," he responded, smirking at her.

************************************

Marinette's heart started pounding as she walked up to the door of Adrien's house alongside him.

She gave herself a mental pep talk. The Butterfly Miraculous allowed its holder to sense emotions, so she needed to stay calm at all costs. She couldn't let herself get too nervous, or afraid, or panicked.

Adrien opened the door for her and she slowly walked inside. Gabriel and Nathalie were in their usual places, waiting for them.

Stopping in the foyer, she looked down at the floor as Adrien moved next to her.

"A pleasure as always, Miss Dupain-Cheng," Gabriel said.

Marinette didn't respond. She was too busy trying to steady her breathing.

He cocked his head. "Something wrong?" he asked, starting to walk towards her.

She was losing control, the fear was overtaking her. Then her own voice echoed in her head.

_Do you want to know what I do when I get upset?_ _I close my eyes... then I think about the place where I'm the happiest... and it always seems to make me feel better..._

She slammed her eyes shut and thought of her perfect world, the one she was in that morning as Adrien whispered sweet nothings to her in between kisses.

_I love you Princess... You make me so happy... You're my everything._ _.._

And suddenly the fear was gone.

She opened her eyes and smiled up at the opposing figure in front of her. "I'm sorry Mr Agreste," she purred. "I was so afraid to see you and Miss Sancoeur again. You see, I feel absolutely awful about the mess I made at dinner yesterday. I hope you both can forgive me."

He smiled back at her, his posture relaxing. "Of course Miss Dupain-Cheng. Think nothing of it. I'm sure we'll all have a better experience this evening."

She nodded fervently.

"And I see you brought more dessert for us," Gabriel continued. "Hopefully we'll actually get to enjoy it tonight."

"I sure hope so. I mean, third time's the charm, right?"

"Indeed," he said, smiling.

Nathalie walked forward and grabbed the box from her hands before going into the dining room.

"Marinette and I will be upstairs until dinner is ready," Adrien said, starting to pull her along.

"Not so fast," his father replied, causing them to stop. "I don't think it's appropriate for the two of you to be alone in your room. You can stay down here in the foyer or in the dining room."

Adrien looked at him, furrowing his brow. "Since when is being in my room an issue?" he asked incredulously.

"Since now," Gabriel snapped. He cleared his throat. "Now, if you'll excuse me."

The couple exchanged glances as he disappeared into his study. "I guess we have to stay down here," Adrien said, disappointed.

"I'm sorry."

He wrapped his arms around her. "Not as sorry as I am," he said before kissing her. After pulling back he continued speaking. "I had some _really_ fun plans for us. I guess you'll just have to visit me in the middle of the night again."

She smiled. "Oh, you would like that, wouldn't you?"

"More than anything."

************************************

They stayed in the foyer until Nathalie announced that dinner was ready. Of course, they didn't get to talk like Marinette was hoping. There was no way she could tell Adrien anything important while they were there.

Going into the dining room, Marinette made sure to stay out of the way as the food was brought out. Once it was safely on the table, the three diners sat down.

The meal that night was confit de canard, a slow-cooked dish of duck served with roasted potatoes and garlic.

"Wow, this looks delicious," Marinette commented.

"Bon appétit," Nathalie replied from her spot along the wall.

The girl looked back down at her plate and picked up her fork. Suddenly she stopped as a thought crossed her mind.

No, she was just being paranoid. They wouldn't try to poison her. They might want her earrings, but they wouldn't commit _murder_ in order to get them.

Wait, would they?

Marinette needed to think of something quick. She needed some sort of leverage to make herself indispensable to them.

She looked over at Adrien. He smiled at her and mouthed the words 'I love you.'

Adrien. Chat Noir. That was it.

"Mr Agreste," Marinette said suddenly, looking down the table. "I almost forgot. I think I found someone for your new ad campaign."

Silence for a moment.

"You do?" Gabriel asked, looking back at her.

She nodded. "Yes. There's this boy that stops by my parent's bakery all the time. And he fits your description perfectly."

"I see," he murmured. "What's his name?"

"Griffin," she replied before turning her head towards Adrien. He stopped eating and looked at her confused.

She continued speaking. "Adrien, you've seen him there before. I'm sure you remember; the boy who said that he was really _crumby_ at baking?" She winked so only he would see.

A smile crept onto his face. "Oh right... him," Adrien said, nodding. "He does fit the description."

"Well what's he like?" Gabriel asked.

"Let me think," Marinette replied, tapping her finger against her lips. "Well he's good-looking and very nice, but he can get really annoying with the jokes after a while. And to be honest, he's kind of a flirt."

Adrien laughed. "You do realize that he's in love with you, right?"

Marinette looked back over. She could just kiss him. "What?" she asked, pretending to be surprised. "No he's not!"

"Of course he is. The way he looks at you, I thought it was obvious..."

"He sounds perfect," Gabriel interrupted. "What's his last name?"

"Oh, that's the thing," she said. "I don't know his last name. He never told me. But I'll definitely ask him the next time he stops by the bakery."

Gabriel nodded. "Yes, please do."

Marinette smiled at him and picked up her fork again. Without anyone jumping in to stop her, she took a bite of her dinner.


	25. An Offensive Remark and A Sloppy Kiss

They finally had a successful dinner and made it to dessert. Marinette explained all the different types of pastries as Nathalie brought the dessert box around the table.

Gabriel put a fake smile on his face and chose a mille-feuille. Adrien very happily grabbed a chocolate croissant and Marinette took a palmier.

Nathalie then placed the box back on the table and went to her place.

"You're not going to have one, Miss Sancoeur?" Marinette asked.

"I'm fine, thank you."

"Go ahead Nathalie, our guest brought them for all of us to enjoy," Gabriel said.

She nodded and stepped forward, grabbing a lemon tart from the box.

"This is so good," Adrien complimented in between bites. "Your parents are so talented."

"Thank you," Marinette replied, smiling at him.

"Yes, very tasty," Gabriel agreed.

Adrien looked up at him. "Marinette's father actually invited me over to the bakery Saturday morning to teach me how to bake. May I go?"

After a momentary pause he gave his answer. "No, you may not."

Adrien's face fell. "Why not? Do I have a photoshoot or something that day?"

"No, you do not."

"Then why can't I go?" he asked, a small amount of anger entering his voice.

"Because I said so," Gabriel said back, a hint of anger in his voice as well.

The boy clenched his jaw. "I already told him that I would be there."

"Well, you should know not to agree to plans before you get my approval."

Adrien couldn't believe how unreasonable his father was being. He pursed his lips in frustration.

"It's okay Adrien," Marinette said, noticing his expression. "My father will understand."

He glanced at her for a second before looking at Gabriel again. "It would _really_ mean a lot to me if you would allow me to go."

"Absolutely not," he replied coldly. "There's no point in you learning how to bake. That type of skill is beneath people like us."

And suddenly it felt like all of the air was sucked out of the room.

Both Adrien and Nathalie stared at Gabriel as he realized what he just said, and how insulting it must be to someone whose parents were bakers. Marinette lowered her eyes down to look at the table.

"Mi... Miss Dupain-Cheng," Gabriel sputtered. "Please forgive me. That... that came out wrong."

"It's no problem Mr Agreste, I understand," she said quietly, not looking at him.

Adrien was shaking with anger. He pushed his chair back and stood up.

Marinette quickly looked at him. "It's okay," she whispered. "Please don't get upset."

Moving to her side, he pulled her chair back. Then he grabbed her hand and guided her to a standing position. "Father, if you'll excuse us. We're done here."

Gabriel also stood. "It was a mistake. I apologize."

Adrien ignored him and walked Marinette out of the room. Once they were in the foyer, she turned to him. "Please Adrien," she begged. "Please don't be upset."

He wrapped his arms around her waist. "I love you Marinette."

She tilted her head and smiled uncertainly at him. "I love you too."

"Don't listen to anything my father says. You're perfect. And your parents are perfect. I wish that I had parents like yours. Well actually, my mom was amazing, but my father, he's been unbearable my whole life."

Marinette felt like her heart was breaking when she heard him mention his mother. He still had no idea that she was somewhere in the house. "Adrien," she whispered as tears filled her eyes. "We need to talk. Can I come by later tonight?"

Adrien nodded. "Of course you can. You know I want you to."

She nodded back. "I'll come over at midnight. Try to get some rest before I arrive."

"I won't be able to rest Princess. I'll be too excited to see you again."

"Please try," she said, putting her hand to his cheek.

"I'll try," he whispered, leaning in to kiss her. But his lips never reached their destination.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng," Gabriel interrupted, walking out of the dining room.

Marinette tried to step back to face him but Adrien kept his arms around her, holding her tight. He glared at his father as he approached.

"I offer my utmost apologies to you and your family for my harsh words. I was completely out of line. To make it up to you, I will allow Adrien to go to your house Saturday morning."

She looked quickly at Adrien before turning her attention back to Gabriel. "You're allowing him to come over to my house... to make it up to _me_? Not because he really wants to go?"

He remained silent for a moment. "Well you two just seem like such a wonderful couple, I wouldn't want my behavior to scare you away from your relationship."

Marinette nodded, unsure of what to say in response.

"May we go up to my room now?" Adrien asked, still glaring.

Gabriel squinted his eyes at his son. He opened his mouth to respond but Marinette quickly spoke. "I should really go home now. It's getting late."

Adrien looked back at her, his anger turning to sadness. "No Marinette, please stay."

"Miss Dupain-Cheng is right," Gabriel said. "It's quite late and you still need to do your schoolwork Adrien."

"Marinette?" Adrien tried again, pleading with her to stay.

She looked between his father and him. "I'm so sorry Adrien but I should go. I'll see you tomorrow at school."

The boy nodded reluctantly. "Father," he said, still keeping his eyes on Marinette. "Would you mind giving us a minute? I'd like to say goodbye to my girlfriend in private."

Gabriel sighed, clearly annoyed by the request. "Don't take too long, you have schoolwork to do." He looked at Marinette. "Goodnight, Miss Dupain-Cheng. I hope you have a pleasant evening. Oh, and don't forget about getting me that boy's information the next time you see him."

"I will," she replied flatly.

With that, Gabriel spun around and walked to his study.

When they were alone, Adrien reached a hand up and pushed the bangs away from her eyes. "Until next time, my beautiful Princess," he said before kissing her.

************************************

It was five minutes before midnight. Marinette was pacing back and forth in her room. The time had come. She was going to see Adrien and tell him everything. 'Nervous' could not even begin to describe how she felt.

Tikki tried to calm her down. "I know this will be difficult for him to hear, but he needs to know what's going on. You're doing the right thing."

"I know Tikki, I know. At least I know that intellectually. But I still feel terrible. He's going to be devastated," she lamented, trying to hold back tears.

The kwami flew up and hugged her cheek. "Be strong Marinette. Adrien will need you to help him get through this."

She nodded as Tikki moved back. "You're right, I need to be strong for him." She took in a deep breath. Exhaling, she reached up and removed her necklace. Then she climbed up the stairs to her bed and tossed it down on the covers.

"Ready?" Tikki asked.

"Ready as I'll ever be. Tikki, spots on!"

Once transformed, Ladybug climbed out to her balcony through the hatch above her bed.

Taking her yo-yo out, she swung off to Adrien's house. She landed on the rooftop across from his bedroom and took one last deep breath before flying over to the window ledge.

Adrien was right there waiting for her in his pajamas. "I told you that I'd be too excited to sleep," he said lovingly, extending his hand out to help her down.

She detransformed into Marinette as soon as her feet touched the floor. Tikki gave Marinette an encouraging look and then floated a few meters away, giving them some space.

Adrien smiled at his girlfriend. "I'm so glad that you're here."

She nodded, trying to keep the tears at bay. "Adrien," she whispered. "We need to talk."

"Of course," he replied, guiding her to the couch. After sitting down, he turned to her. "What did you want to talk about?"

Marinette looked at him. This was it. Their lives were never going to be the same after this. "Adrien, there's something I need to tell you. And I'm afraid that it's going to break your heart."

His smile quickly faded away.

"I'm sorry," she continued as the first tear fell. "I'm sorry that I have to tell you these things and upset you, but you need to know what's going on. You deserve to know."

"Marinette," he whispered, tears now welling up in his eyes. "What's going on?"

She struggled to find the words. "I... I'm sorry..."

"Is there someone else?" he asked desperately.

Marinette's eyes widened from shock. "No," she whispered. "No, Adrien. There's no one else. That's not what I'm trying to tell you..."

He quickly wrapped her up in a hug. "Oh my gosh, I'm so relieved. I was so afraid." He held on tightly for a second before pulling back to look at her. "So we're still together, right?"

"Of course we are."

He smiled through the tears and pressed his forehead against hers. "I'm so sorry Princess. My mind just went to the worst possible thing I could imagine. I love you so much, I don't know what I'd do without you in my life." He leaned in and kissed her. It was definitely a sloppy kiss from all the tears, but neither of them cared.

After Adrien pulled back he put his hand to her cheek. "Whatever you have to tell me, it's okay. I just need us to be together, I don't care about anything else."

Marinette shook her head slowly. Then she opened her mouth to speak.


	26. A Mother, A Father and Daybreak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dedicated to RoseTiger1687, who has been anxiously awaiting this moment for about five chapters now.

Marinette needed to get the most important part out first. "It's your mother, Adrien. She never disappeared."

Adrien scrunched up his face. "What are you talking about? She's been gone for over a year now. No one knows what happened to her."

The girl shook her head sadly. "She didn't disappear. She's still here. Your... your father hid her in a secret part of the house."

He just stared at her in disbelief as she continued speaking. "Plagg and Tikki found her last night. She's still alive but she's asleep, like she's in a coma..."

"That's not true," Adrien finally said, interrupting her. "Marinette, please tell me that's not true."

She paused for a second. "It's true," she whispered, looking down.

He looked over at Tikki, who nodded dismally.

Unable to stay seated, he stood up and took a couple of steps away, running his fingers through his hair. Marinette also stood and followed him. After a minute he turned around to her. They looked at each other before Adrien reached forward and hugged her, sobbing into her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry Adrien," she whispered.

He cried for a minute until he spoke. "She's still alive?"

Marinette nodded.

Another minute passed by as Adrien continued crying. "I can't believe this. I can't believe that my father would hide this from me. Letting me wonder what happened to her." He shook his head. "And he knew this whole time."

Tightening his grip on her, he pulled Marinette closer. "I thought she was dead," he said, sniffling. "I knew that she would never abandon us so I just assumed that something bad happened to her and she died. That would be the only reasonable explanation why she never came back."

Marinette listened to him. She couldn't imagine what he must have been feeling.

"And he's been hiding her away from me," he continued, now with some anger. "I don't care that she's in a coma. I could have seen her. I could have held her hand or given her a hug. I could have told her that I love her. And who knows, maybe she could have felt me or heard me. She could have known that I was there, thinking about her and missing her."

He tightened his grip again as his whole body shook slightly. A few more sobs came out before he finally let go and moved back to see Marinette. He put his hand to her face and rubbed his thumb across her cheek. "Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you for telling me this Princess."

She nodded, leaning into his touch.

"Can we go see her?" he asked.

Marinette looked over at Tikki.

"I don't know how you'd get down there," the kwami said. "There seems to be some sort of elevator that leads to her from your father's study, but I have no idea how it works."

Adrien shook his head in frustration. "This is crazy," he muttered.

"I'm so sorry," Marinette repeated.

He gave her a weak smile. "I already told you, don't you ever be sorry. This isn't your fault. You're an angel for telling me."

She looked at him sadly. "There's more."

His face fell. "More?" he asked hesitantly.

"Yes, but we don't have to talk about it tonight. I know there's already a lot to process. So if you want some time, we can wait an extra day."

Adrien quickly made his decision. "No, I don't want to wait. I want to know right now. I mean, it can't be any worse than what you already told me, right?"

Her eyes dropped down to avert his gaze.

"Oh my gosh," he said. "Is it worse?"

"It... it's probably equally as bad," she admitted, looking back at him.

Adrien took in a deep breath and exhaled. "Okay, I'm ready."

Marinette sighed. "It's about your father."

He just nodded, encouraging her to continue.

"He... he's..." she trailed off. She couldn't bring herself to say the words.

"It's okay, you can tell me."

"He... I... I finally figured out why he's been so nice to me. It's because he knows that I'm Ladybug."

Adrien's eyes widened. "He knows? How did he find out?"

"I have no idea," she admitted.

Suddenly he tensed up. "Oh no, does he know who I am?" he asked with fear in his eyes.

Marinette's face twisted in despair. "No, he doesn't," she choked out.

He exhaled. "Oh thank goodness. He would be absolutely pissed if he knew."

"No," she whispered, shaking her head. "He would be thrilled. Then he would be able to get your ring and my earrings."

Now Adrien shook his head. "Why... would he do that?" he asked slowly.

"Because... because that's what he's been trying to do this whole time."

Silence as sudden realization hit Adrien.

After a few moments he spoke. "Are you telling me that my father is Hawk Moth?"

"Yes," she replied, barely at a whisper.

"And you're sure?"

She nodded. "Your mother wasn't the only thing they found in the house last night. They found the butterflies too."

Another pause as Adrien processed the news.

"Why hasn't he tried to take your earrings?"

She put her palm to her forehead. "I'm assuming it's because he doesn't want to reveal himself yet. He doesn't know where your ring is. So he won't make a move until he tracks down Chat Noir."

"He doesn't know that it's me," Adrien surmised.

"Yeah."

"That first day you came over, that boy he needed for his ad campaign... he was describing me," he said, talking through his thoughts. "He wanted you to tell him Chat Noir's real name."

"Yeah," she replied again. "But I didn't know his real name at the time. And even if I did, I couldn't exactly suggest you. I guess that was the big flaw with his plan. He never suspected that _you_ could possibly be Chat Noir."

Adrien huffed. "He always thinks that he's smarter than everyone else." He blew out some air. "So my father is Hawk Moth. I should have known. A cold-hearted, self-centered person like him? Of course he's Hawk Moth, it just makes so much sense. And I guess that means that Nathalie is Mayura?"

Marinette confirmed his suspicion with a nod.

He huffed again. "Of course she is. She's always been way too dedicated to my father." Trying to clear his mind, he shook his head and took a few steps away before walking back over. "Wait a second, where's my ring now? It's not at your house, is it?" he asked with slight panic in his voice.

"No, I put it someplace safe. And the Miracle Box is in a different place too."

Adrien nodded in approval. "You're so smart, Marinette."

She shook her head. "If I were truly smart, I would have figured out who Hawk Moth was a long time ago."

"Don't you dare say that!" he demanded, putting his hands on her shoulders. "I've been living in the same house as Hawk Moth _and_ Mayura for over a year and I never figured it out. So don't you dare blame yourself." He let go of her and turned away. After a moment, he turned to face her. "So what do we do, Princess?"

"I don't know. I mean, I bought us some time with the whole 'Griffin' story so we could come up with a plan. He won't try anything if he thinks I'm about to get him Chat Noir's real name."

"What about my ring? Are you going to give it back to me now?"

"I don't know if that's a good idea," she said, reaching up and smoothing out his hair a little. "Emotions are running high. I don't want you to do anything that you'll regret later on."

He wrapped her up in a big hug. "Thank you for looking out for me."

"You're welcome Adrien. I'll always be here for you." She pulled back from the hug and put her hands to the sides of his face, moving close so they were almost touching. "I love you so much and I'll always love you. No matter what happens."

Even with all the awful news he received that night, Adrien had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude. Gratitude for the girl in front of him. The one who gave him unconditional love and support.

"Marinette, I can't even begin to thank you for everything that you've done for me. Not only today, but every day since we met. I'll never be able to tell you how much you mean to me."

"Oh Adrien," she sighed, tilting her head slightly. "You're too wonderful."

He put his hand up and caressed her cheek. "There isn't anything else that you need to tell me, is there?"

She closed her eyes for a moment before looking at him again. "Actually, yes there is. Just one more thing that happened a few months ago. But you don't have your ring, so it doesn't really matter right now. We can talk about it another time, we should both get some rest."

"Will you stay with me tonight?"

Marinette nodded. "Just for a while. But I need to leave before... anyone wakes up."

Adrien quickly picked her up bridal style, earning a surprised gasp from the girl, and brought her over to his bed. Lying her down, he kissed her forehead before going to switch off the lights.

She slid under the covers while she waited for him. After a minute he climbed in too. He sighed loudly as he snuggled in next to her, but a smile crossed his face as Marinette put her arm across his chest and tilted her head into the crook of his neck. "I love you Adrien," she whispered. "Get some rest. I'll be right here."

"Thank you," he whispered back.

************************************

Marinette woke with a start. She hadn't intended on falling asleep, but exhaustion got the better of her.

She panicked for a second before she realized that it was still dark outside. Breathing a sigh of relief, she turned to the boy lying next to her. Her expression softened as she looked at him; he was just so peaceful.

She hated to disturb his sleep, but she couldn't let him wake up all alone. He had been through enough already.

Reluctantly she reached over and shook him gently on the shoulder. "Adrien," she whispered.

He stirred slightly as she whispered again. "Adrien, I have to leave."

That got him to open his eyes. "Marinette?" he asked, sleepily.

"Hey," she said, moving closer to him. "I'm sorry but I need to go home."

"Please let me come with you. I can't stay here. Not with them."

She looked at him, her heart breaking. "I'm sorry but you can't come with me. We have to keep acting normally. We can't let on that we know anything."

"You're right," he sighed, closing his eyes momentarily. "I just don't know how I'm going to react when I see him."

"Try your best to avoid him. If you do see him, you have to stay calm. He can feel your emotions so he'll know if you're upset."

"I don't think that I'll be able to control my anger when I see him. After everything he's done to me, to you, to my mom, to _Paris_ , how am I supposed to stay calm?"

"I don't know," she said, pressing her forehead against his. "Oh Adrien, I wish I could be there with you." She suddenly sat up as she noticed a hint of daybreak coming in through the windows. The sun would be rising within the hour. "I have to go."

The boy groaned before sitting up too. He placed his hand on top of hers. "I can't wait until the moment we're together again."

"Me neither," she whispered.


	27. A Controversial Necklace and Happy Memories

Marinette waited for Adrien on the front steps of the school. She didn't know what to expect.

Did he see his father that morning? Was he able to stay calm? Did Gabriel figure out what he knows?

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the silver town car turn the corner. She hurried down the steps to the sidewalk.

As soon as the car stopped at the curb, Adrien opened the door and jumped out. He closed the door behind him and threw his arms around Marinette.

They held onto each other for a few seconds until the car drove away.

Marinette pulled back to look at him. "What happened? Are you okay?" she asked quickly.

"It's okay," he said, smiling at her. "I didn't see him."

She exhaled and smiled. "Oh I'm so relieved. I was worried about you."

"I'm fine," he reassured her. After kissing he reached up to her face. But at noticing the necklace around her neck, Adrien's happy expression disappeared. "Why are you wearing that?" he asked.

She blinked at him. She didn't think that he would notice. At least, she was _hoping_ that he wouldn't notice. "I... I have to."

"No, you don't have to. Please take it off. I don't want you wearing anything from him. I promise that I'll get you something really nice instead."

"No, you don't understand. I _have_ to wear it. Your father... he put a tracking device inside of it," she finished with a whisper.

He stared at her. "He put a tracking device in it?"

She nodded.

His face was full of distress. "Take it off, Marinette. I'm not going to let him do this."

"No," she argued. "He doesn't know that I found the tracking device. If I stop wearing it he'll get suspicious."

"I don't want it touching you. At least take it off and put it in your bag."

"Okay Adrien. If it will make you feel better, I'll do that." She unclasped the necklace and dropped it into her purse. "Better?"

"Yeah," he replied. "I feel horrible that he did this to you. He's _deranged_ , there's no other explanation."

"He's just desperate, that's all. I mean, I think he's doing this for your mom, to get her to wake up."

Adrien looked down at the ground, tears coming to his eyes. "I don't want to talk about this right now."

Marinette nodded and put her hand to his face. "I'm sorry."

He grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it. "I never want you to say those words again."

"I... I'm so sorry," she sputtered. "I won't talk about her again, I promise."

"No, not that," he said, moving closer. "I meant that you should never say 'I'm sorry' again." He leaned in and kissed her. "Don't you ever be sorry."

************************************

When the school day was done, Adrien checked his phone. "He didn't invite you over today."

"That makes sense, he wants me to stay home and wait for Griffin to stop by so I can get his information."

"Well life is just _fu_ _ll_ of disappointments, isn't it?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

She grinned widely. "Come on, let's go ask my parents."

They hurried hand-in-hand to her house and went inside. Tom and Sabine were in the front talking.

"Yes, you can go over to Adrien's," Sabine said, not even waiting for the question. "I already packed up some desserts."

"Oh, actually the desserts didn't go over so well last night," Marinette explained. "I think it's best if we skip them today."

"That's too bad," Tom remarked. "I hope there was nothing wrong with them."

"Oh no, they were delicious. It's my father that was the issue," Adrien told him. "He's not a fan of sweets," he added.

"Well I won't _sugarcoat_ it, that's a little disappointing."

"We're leaving!" Marinette yelled, pulling Adrien outside before he had a chance to reply.

Tom chuckled and ran to the door. "Don't forget about Saturday!" he called out after them.

"I wouldn't _cream_ of it!" Adrien yelled back as he was frog-marched to the car.

Once they climbed inside, his bodyguard started driving them to the house. They whispered back and forth to each other.

"You know that you have to stay calm around him, right?" Marinette asked.

"Yeah I know. It's going to be tough, but if you're there with me I think I'll be able to handle it."

"Just think about the place where you're the happiest, like I taught you before. That's how I got through yesterday."

He cupped her cheek with his hand. "I'm the happiest when I'm with you."

She smiled devilishly. "Is that so? I guess I'll have to give you some good memories to think about then." With that she moved forward and smashed her lips against his. Putting her hands into his hair, she deepened the kiss as she pulled him closer.

When the car stopped in the driveway, Marinette quickly undid her seat belt and climbed into his lap. She moved her face right up to his.

He tried to catch his breath as he stared up at her. "Princess, you're too good to me."

She leaned in and kissed him again. And she didn't stop until Adrien's bodyguard opened the car door. He rolled his eyes at seeing them before walking away.

"I guess it's time to go," Marinette said, looking back at Adrien. "Don't be nervous."

He shook his head. "Oh, I'm not nervous. In fact, I don't think my father's going to appreciate knowing exactly _how_ I'm feeling right now."

She leaned back and jabbed him on the shoulder. "You need to control yourself Kitty."

"I'll do whatever you want me to do."

She laughed and climbed off of him. Reaching into her purse, she grabbed the necklace and put it back around her neck. "I have to," she said, meeting his disapproving gaze.

He sighed and then helped her out of the car. They held hands as they walked to the door and went inside.

Gabriel and Nathalie were waiting for them.

Adrien's anger resurfaced as soon as he laid eyes on his father.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng," Gabriel said. "We weren't expecting you this evening."

"If you weren't expecting her then why are you here waiting for us?" Adrien asked coldly.

Marinette squeezed his hand. 'It's okay,' she tried to tell him through her touch.

Gabriel paused. "Is it a crime for a father to want to see his own son?"

Adrien couldn't believe his choice of words. 'Is it a _crime_?'

His father obviously didn't concern himself about what was a crime and what wasn't. Adrien wanted to laugh in his face. And if he wasn't so angry he might have done just that. "You don't care about seeing me any other day."

Now Marinette turned towards her boyfriend. Her eyes pleaded with him as he looked over at her.

"You need to check your attitude," Gabriel growled.

Adrien didn't respond immediately. He continued looking at Marinette for a few seconds. Those beautiful blue eyes were piercing into his. And suddenly he thought back to their kiss in the car. The feeling of her hands running through his hair. The taste of her sweet lips. The way they were pressed up against each other.

All of his anger disappeared and he faced his father again. "I'm sorry, you're right. I guess that I'm acting out because I'm still angry with you about what you said after dinner yesterday."

Marinette almost smiled. She knew that he could handle this.

"Yes, I suppose an additional apology would be appropriate," Gabriel said. "Miss Dupain-Cheng, I apologize again for yesterday. I hope you can forgive me."

"Of course, Mr Agreste," she responded.

"Excellent," he continued. "Well, not that we don't enjoy your company, but I think that it's best if you return home and eat dinner with your parents tonight. They must be missing you."

"No, they said it was fine for her to eat with us," Adrien argued.

"I'm afraid I must insist. We'll make plans for dinner some other night."

Adrien was about to argue back but Marinette spoke first. "You're right, I should go. My parents probably need my help in the bakery."

"They're very lucky to have such a considerate daughter," Gabriel commented.

She nodded and looked over at Adrien. "Don't be upset, we'll have dinner another time."

"Another time," he repeated, disappointed.

"Will you walk me outside?"

Adrien nodded fervently. "Father, Nathalie, if you'll excuse us." He turned around and opened the door for Marinette.

"Have a good evening," she said over her shoulder as they walked outside.

When she and Adrien were alone on the front steps she grabbed his hand. "Are you going to be okay by yourself for a while?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly.

"Just remember to breathe and think happy thoughts. I'll come over again at midnight."

He smiled. "Well that's definitely a happy thought."

She looked mildly surprised. "Oh, and here I was thinking that I should give you some more happy memories to hold you over. But I guess you're all set," she teased, letting go of his hand and turning away to leave.

"No no no no no," he said, reaching out and pulling her back. "I need all the happy memories that I can get."

She giggled and proceeded to give him lots of _very_ happy memories.


	28. A Midnight Discussion, A Roommate and A Promise

An eternity and a half passed by until the clock struck midnight.

Adrien was standing at the window when Ladybug arrived. She didn't even have time to detransform before he grabbed her and kissed her passionately. "I'm sorry," he said, out of breath as he pulled away. "But I couldn't wait."

"It's okay, I understand," Ladybug murmured, leaning in to give him another kiss. "Alright if I detransform now?" she asked.

"Yes, please."

With a smile she said the words and released the transformation.

"I love you Marinette," he said as soon as he saw her.

"I love you too." She gave him a quick peck on the lips. "How did dinner go?"

"It was fine. My father wasn't there."

She furrowed her brow. "He didn't eat dinner with you?"

"He never does. He's only been there lately because of you. I'm not a good enough reason for him to take time off from his work."

"Ad... Adrien, that's not true," she sputtered.

"It is true. I keep trying to tell you Marinette, my father has never cared about me. My mom is the only person he's ever loved. Besides himself of course," he scoffed.

"Please don't say those things. He does love you, he just doesn't express it."

Adrien tilted his head and smiled slightly as he looked at her. "This is one of the reasons why I love you so much, Princess. You always want to see the good in people, even when it's not there."

"He does love you..." she tried again, but Adrien cut her off.

"If he finds out that I'm Chat Noir and he thinks that I have my ring, do you seriously think that he would wait even _one second_ before storming in here and trying to take it away?"

Marinette stared at him.

"Well?" he asked.

"I don't know," she whispered, tears stinging her eyes.

Sadness overcame him when he realized that he was upsetting her. "I... I'm so sorry Marinette. Please forgive me, you're so wonderful. Let... let's talk about something else." He put his arms around her and hugged her tightly. "I'm sorry Princess. Please, don't be upset."

She nodded into his shoulder as she held onto him.

He leaned back to look at her. "Let's go lie down and we can talk."

With another nod she let him guide her to his bed. He pulled back the covers and they both climbed in.

She blew out a breath as she turned on her side to face him. "I should tell you what happened a couple of months ago."

"Go ahead," he said.

"You're not going to be happy, but it's time that you knew. A couple of months ago, I made a stupid mistake and you... I mean, Chat Noir... ended up getting akumatized because of it."

"What?" he asked, confused.

"It's true. You don't remember it because Bunnix brought me back in time to fix the mistake, and everything was redone."

He blinked a few times. "I was akumatized?"

She nodded. "Yeah, you became Chat Blanc and horrible things happened. That's why I had to go back and stop it." After a moment's pause she continued. "And that's why I freaked out when I first found out that you're Chat Noir."

Adrien shook his head slightly. "I don't understand."

"Ladybug and Chat Noir were dating when you were akumatized too. I was afraid that everything was starting over again, so I decided that it would be best if we broke up. I thought that you would be akumatized if you found out that I was Ladybug."

"I would _never_ be akumatized because of that. I'm in love with you," he argued.

"Well, you weren't in love with me the first time. You were still in love with Ladybug back then."

"It doesn't matter. You were one of my best friends, I would have been thrilled."

With a soft sigh, she whispered "You're sweet for saying that." Scooting closer to him, she tucked her forehead into his chin. "I should have told you before, I just didn't want you to be upset."

Adrien put his hand to the back of her head and ran his fingers through her hair. "It's okay. I'm more concerned that my father would akumatize me. Although, I really shouldn't be surprised."

Marinette sighed again. "He didn't know it was you."

"Are you sure about that? Maybe he figured out my identity and he akumatized me because I refused to give him my ring."

"Who knows what happened. The important thing is that we don't let you get akumatized this time. That's why I didn't give your Miraculous back to you."

"Do you think it's safe for me to have it now? Now that I know your identity and everything else?"

"I'm not sure," she whispered.

Silence for a minute as the two of them were lost in thought.

"I think I should have it back," Adrien finally said. "My father is convinced that some kid named Griffin is Chat Noir. And no one but the two of us knows that Griffin doesn't really exist." He paused. "I want to have it. Just in case he tries to do something to you," he continued, his face full of determination.

Marinette closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, inhaling his scent. Then she tilted her head up to look at him. "Okay."

************************************

Adrien woke the next morning when his alarm sounded. He smiled at seeing the one lying next to him.

Plagg was the second best roommate he could have asked for.

After their discussion in the middle of the night, Ladybug had promptly gone out, retrieved his ring and brought it back before returning home.

And boy, did it feel good to have his Miraculous on his finger again. Now he could adequately protect Marinette if he needed to.

He quickly got ready. "Let's go!" he announced to Plagg. "We don't want to be late for school!"

"Ugh, school," the kwami grumbled.

"You've missed the last three days," Adrien reminded him.

"It wasn't enough."

"Oh come on, you can hang out with Tikki now!"

"I've been hanging out with Tikki for months. Just because you and Marinette are blind doesn't mean that everyone is," Plagg said.

Adrien glared at him.

"Alright," the kwami finally said, flying over. "Let's go." He disappeared into his shirt and Adrien went down to breakfast.

His father was there at the table.

This was the first time that he would be around his father without Marinette by his side since finding out his secret. Of course, they wouldn't exactly be alone. Nathalie was there too, but that only made things worse.

Adrien sat down and began eating. It felt like his ring was burning into his skin. Surely one of them would notice it.

But no, if they never noticed it before, why would they now?

Why would Gabriel ever notice anything about his son? He didn't pay attention to him. And he didn't care about him either.

Marinette was wrong. His father didn't love him. He never had.

It was super obvious now. He was risking everything by being Hawk Moth. If anyone ever found out about him, he and Nathalie would undoubtedly be charged and convicted as international terrorists and be sent to prison. Then Adrien would be left all alone; both of his parents and Nathalie would be gone. Did his father ever think of that? No, of course not. He only thought about himself.

But... he was at breakfast right now. He was eating a meal with his son without Marinette being there.

Maybe... just maybe... there _was_ something there. Maybe the tiniest ittiest bit of love.

"Did Marinette happen to mention if she saw that boy yet?" Gabriel suddenly asked, keeping his eyes on his plate as he spoke to his son.

Maybe not.

"No she hasn't," Adrien replied.

And that was the end of the conversation.

Adrien continued eating, glancing up at his father every once in a while.

Was he wearing his Miraculous? Hawk Moth wore the brooch near his neck, so it was probably there under his ascot. And if he had the Miraculous, then his kwami had to be nearby. What was the Butterfly kwami's name? He would have to ask Plagg later.

Then his thoughts moved to Nathalie. Was she wearing her Miraculous? Was the Peacock kwami here too?

The whole situation was mind boggling. Three Miraculouses and three kwamis in the same room at the same time. And when Marinette was there, it was four. All those secrets under one roof.

Eventually Adrien finished his meal and got up to leave.

"Have a good day at school," Gabriel said to him.

He nodded over at his father and walked out of the room.

************************************

Marinette was waiting for him again. She looked at him eagerly when he ran up to her.

"He was at breakfast this morning. Everything went fine."

She seemed relieved. "Great job Adrien, I knew you could handle it. And it'll only get easier from now on." She stopped and smiled brightly at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Your father ate breakfast with you," she sing-songed.

"He asked me if you saw Griffin yet," he deadpanned.

"Oh," she said, her face falling.

"I tried to tell you Marinette. My father is not like your parents."

"Look Adrien," she said, wrapping her arms around him. "I know things are _really_ complicated right now. But I also know that your father loves you. He does," she insisted, seeing his doubtful expression. "He's just a little mixed up with everything that's happened, that's all."

He stared at her. She wanted so desperately for him to feel loved. "Marinette, I don't know what to say to convince you."

She was about to speak again but Adrien continued. "It's okay. It's okay that he doesn't love me, because I know that you do. And that's enough for me." Before she could respond he kissed her. They didn't break apart until they overheard a complaint.

"Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!" Chloé muttered on the way inside the building.

They laughed softly as they parted. "We should go to class," Adrien said.

"Yeah, we should," she responded. "Just promise me something first."

"Anything."

She smiled. "Promise me that you won't say those things about your father again. He does love you, and that's final."

He rubbed his thumb across her cheek. "Okay Princess, I promise."


	29. A Stolen Smile and Cat Puns

Miss Bustier's lesson that morning was about 19th century poetry. Or maybe it was about 'L'étrangre.' Wait, maybe Alexandre Dumas?

Adrien couldn't remember, his mind was way too preoccupied thinking about his father. And Marinette's persistence that there was love there.

He racked his brain, trying to remember some positive experiences that they shared. There was that time that his father got him a scarf for his birthday. And the time when they watched his mother's movie together. Plus, there was the time when his father shocked the world by publicly appearing in person at his fashion show. His father went right up to him and hugged him, in front of the cameras and all. In those moments he felt loved.

But was that enough? Three moments over the course of fifteen years? There had to be more moments than that, but those were the only ones Adrien could think of. What a pitiful relationship they had.

All day long he could barely pay attention. Not even to the final bell. He remained in his seat until Marinette stood over him and put her hand on his shoulder. "It's time to go, Adrien," she said sweetly.

"Right, of course," he mumbled, standing up and grabbing his school bag. "Do you want to come over for dinner?"

She tilted her head slightly. "Adrien, it's Thursday. You have your lessons today."

How could he forget? Thursdays meant fencing practice, followed immediately by his Chinese lesson. By the time those were done, he barely had time to eat a quick dinner and do his homework before bed.

"I'm sorry, I guess I lost track of what day it was."

"Don't worry about it. You've been through a lot recently. It's totally understandable." She pressed her hand to his back and made some small circles. "Do you want to call me later when you get home?"

"You mean, when I get back to my father's house? That place is not my home. A home is a place where a family loves each other."

At hearing his response, Marinette's small smile disappeared and she looked down to the floor. She blinked a few times, trying to keep the tears away. "Well, you should hurry up, you're going to be late," she said quietly before turning and walking to the door.

Adrien moved quickly to catch up with her. Once beside her he tried to hold her hand. But at feeling his touch, she pulled her hand away and put it on the strap of her backpack.

His heart sank. His girlfriend was upset, and he had caused it with his comment. He wished that he could go back and respond differently, but the damage was already done. He mentally berated himself; he didn't even get through one day before breaking his promise to her.

They walked side by side in silence down the stairs to the front door. When they got outside he turned and put his hand to her waist to stop her. "I'm sorry about what I said Princess, I didn't mean to upset you."

She looked up at him, but there was no smile to be found. "It's fine, just call me later."

"I love you," he said, trying to get her smile to return.

"I love you too," she replied, her face stoic.

In a last ditch effort, he leaned in and kissed her. She didn't kiss him back.

He scrunched up his face when he pulled back to look at her again. Her beautiful smile was gone. His words had stolen it from her. "I'll call you later."

She nodded and then walked off towards her house.

************************************

"Halte!" the fencing instructor called, ending the bout.

Both Adrien and Kagami lowered their sabres and lifted their masks. Fencing practice was over for the day. Adrien had done less than spectacular.

"I thought that you and Marinette were back together," Kagami said as they made their way to the changing rooms.

"We are."

"Well then, why are you fencing so poorly today?" she asked bluntly.

He sighed. "I upset her after school. And I feel awful about it."

"What did you do to upset her?"

"I broke a promise that I made to her," he explained, keeping his eyes down as they walked.

"And she's angry with you now?"

"I don't think she's angry. More like disappointed."

"I see," Kagami murmured. There was silence for a few seconds as they walked. "Well it seems like there's only one thing that you can do then."

Adrien looked sideways at her. "There is?"

"Yes," she replied, nodding. She stopped and turned to fully face him. "You can stop being an idiot and make things right with her."

He half smiled. "Thanks for the advice."

"You're welcome." She placed her sabre down and started moving to the door. "I'll see you next time."

"Bye Kagami," Adrien said, giving a quick wave.

************************************

A bunch of sketchbooks were sprawled across Marinette's desk. She figured that she would work on some designs as she waited for Adrien's call.

She sighed while she thought about her future. With the whole situation of Gabriel Agreste being Hawk Moth, she simply couldn't imagine a scenario in which she would ever make it in the fashion industry. Who knows how things would turn out. Would Ladybug and Chat Noir win? Would Hawk Moth and Mayura win? Either way, her career as a fashion designer was over before it even began. Gabriel would make sure of that.

But that didn't mean she was going to stop designing. It made her happy, and she was pretty good at it. She could at least make things for Adrien and her friends. It would just have to be a hobby instead of a career.

She was finishing up a design for a jacket when she heard a noise coming from her balcony.

The girl froze in fear. Was this it? Did Gabriel finally run out of patience and decide to take her Miraculous? Would she be able to fight off both Hawk Moth and Mayura all by herself?

A knock on the hatch and a voice coming from outside stopped her thoughts in their tracks.

"Marinette?" the voice asked.

She jumped up, bolted up the steps to her loft and threw open the hatch. Chat Noir was there on her balcony holding a bouquet of red roses.

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Marinette asked, looking up at him.

"I'm sorry," he replied, putting one hand to the back of his neck. "But I needed to see you."

"Get inside!" she exclaimed. "Before someone sees you." She ducked into her room to allow Chat Noir to climb in after her.

He landed on her bed, his heart rate quickly increasing at realizing where they were. "These are for you," he said, extending out the flowers.

"Oh Kitty," she whispered, taking them. "You didn't have to do this."

"Yes I did. You're so wonderful Marinette. I broke my promise and upset you, and I feel absolutely horrible about it. I hope you can forgive me."

She leaned towards him and put her hand to his cheek. "Of course I forgive you."

With a relieved smile, he closed the distance and kissed her. This time she happily kissed him back.

"Wow," she sighed after the kiss. "Who would have thought that Chat Noir was such a good kisser? Maybe I should have given him a chance a long time ago," she teased.

He laughed. "You _did_ give Chat Noir a chance, and your father got akumatized, remember?"

"Oh yeah," she murmured.

"What was all of that about anyway? I don't get it, you weren't in love with Chat Noir. So why did you say that you were?"

She groaned and put the bouquet down. "I thought that you were going to figure out that I was Ladybug. So I just said whatever I could think of to make you want to run away the fastest."

He looked at her, his mouth falling open. "I... I didn't run away."

"Well no, but only because you're so nice and you didn't want to hurt my feelings. I knew that you loved Ladybug too much to ever consider dating me."

"That... that's not true..."

Marinette gave him a sympathetic look. "It's alright Kitty. I didn't want to date you either. At least not back then. But things are _very_ different now," she added, winking at him.

"Really?" Chat Noir asked with a smirk. "And what's so different?"

"Well," she started, running her fingers up his arms to his shoulders. "Now I'm finally realizing exactly how _purr_ fect you are." Before he could even react she grabbed his bell and pulled him in for another kiss.

After they separated it took him a second to recover before he put his hands to her face. "Just when I thought I couldn't possibly love you more, you start with the cat puns."

She smiled brighter. "I guess anything is _paw_ sible."

************************************

Thank goodness for supersonic hearing.

Chat Noir woke up when Tom's alarm went off across the house at four o'clock in the morning. He was confused for a moment, staring up at a ceiling that was not his own. The arm draped across his chest finally reminded him of exactly what was going on.

He was in Marinette's room. More specifically, in her bed. Next to her.

Memories of the night before came flooding back. He told her that he would leave after she fell asleep. But she just had the cutest little snores, so he decided to stay a little while longer. Obviously, he had accidentally fallen asleep too.

Now Chat Noir had to leave. Definitely. Without question. One hundred percent, had to leave.

But Marinette was just so sweet lying there. Plus, she had one arm and one leg on top of him. And it would be extremely rude to disturb her and wake her up.

That decided it. He would wait _just_ a tiny bit longer before he left. He was a gentleman like that.

A few minutes passed by before Marinette stirred in her sleep and turned to her other side.

Chat Noir frowned. That must have been the sign to leave.

His frown didn't last long though. It was replaced with a smile as he heard a snore escape from the sleeping girl's lips. He gave her a gentle kiss on the back of her head before getting up and climbing out through the hatch.


	30. A Letter, An Adorable Quirk and A Nugget

Adrien didn't bother going to bed when he was back in his room. Plagg, however, complained about his lack of 'beauty sleep' and quickly flew under the covers.

Sitting down at his desk, Adrien looked at the picture of him and Marinette. They _really_ needed to take a new one. Not that this one was bad, it was just that things were different now. They were dating, so they needed an official couple picture. Maybe he would even post it on Instagram with the caption 'Here's me with my beautiful girlfriend!' That would really piss his father off.

His father. What were they going to do about him? They needed a plan, and they needed one sooner rather than later.

Should they turn him into the police? He definitely deserved to be in jail for what he had done. But no, Adrien didn't want that. No matter how bad of a father he was, he couldn't send him to prison.

Adrien stood up and went to his closet as he thought of something. After searching for a few minutes he found what he was looking for. The scarf that his father gave him last year for his birthday.

He remembered being so happy when he received it, and how loved he felt in that moment. But now he wasn't sure if it was real.

In front of his mirror, he put the scarf on and examined his reflection. Then he reached up and removed it. He ran his fingers down the soft material, admiring the quality. His fingers stopped at the very end as they felt a slight bump.

Moving it up to his face, he saw a small letter stitched into the fabric. It was the same color blue as the rest of the scarf, so it was almost invisible. He had never noticed it before.

"M?" he asked himself. He always assumed that it was a Gabriel Agreste brand scarf. But if that were the case, there should have been a G, not M.

M for Medium? Menswear? Made in... no, definitely not.

The answer popped into his head. "Marinette," he whispered. He looked around and ran over to where his hoodie was hanging up. Grabbing it off the hanger, he ran his fingers over the fabric. At the very bottom corner he found it. Another M. Exactly like the one on his scarf.

That made no sense. His father had access to plenty of scarves. Why would he have one of his friends make one?

Adrien put the hoodie back and picked up the scarf again. No wonder it was made so well, Marinette's lovely hands had created it. But she never told him. Why didn't she mention anything when she saw him wearing it? He would have to ask her.

When it was time for breakfast Adrien put the scarf on and went to the dining room.

His father was there, no doubt planning on asking him about Griffin again.

At seeing his son, Gabriel cocked his head. "Why are you wearing a scarf? It's not cold out today."

"I just thought that I'd wear it. I mean, it's always been my favorite gift from you."

He narrowed his eyes. " _I_ gave you that gift?"

"Yes, you did," Nathalie said quickly from her place along the wall. "For Adrien's birthday last year. Don't you remember?"

He paused for a moment. "Ah yes, for your birthday. I almost forgot. Well I'm pleased that you like it."

Adrien didn't respond. He looked over at Nathalie, who was staring intently at the floor. He picked up his fork and started eating. How long, he wondered, would it take for his father to bring up...

"Has Marinette mentioned if she saw that boy yet?" Gabriel asked.

A new record.

"I didn't speak with her on the phone last night," he responded. It wasn't a lie.

"You should ask her about it today," Gabriel said. It wasn't a suggestion.

"Of course Father."

************************************

Marinette's reaction to seeing him wearing the scarf confirmed the suspicion that was growing in his mind. Her face paled and her eyes lingered on the fabric before meeting his gaze. "H... how was breakfast?" she stuttered.

"Fine, but he questioned me about this scarf. He didn't remember giving it to me."

She didn't say anything.

"I was so happy when I received it," he continued. "It's one of the few positive memories that I have of my father." He paused, waiting for a reaction.

Once again she didn't speak, but her eyes started tearing up.

"Marinette, do you want to tell me anything about this scarf?" he asked gently.

After a minute she finally confessed. "I made it."

He nodded. "How did my father end up with it?"

"I don't know," she whispered. "I dropped it off at your house on your birthday. The note I put on it must have gotten lost."

"Why didn't you ever say anything?"

She shrugged a little. "You just seemed so happy thinking that it was from your father. How could I take that away from you? The important thing is that you liked it. It doesn't matter how you got it."

He nodded again. "Thank you for telling me the truth."

"You're welcome," she whispered.

"But I still wish that you had told me last year when you saw me wearing it. I mean, who knows? Maybe I would have fallen in love with you way back then. We could have been together for over a year now."

She tilted her head at him. "You know that wouldn't have happened. Ladybug was the only girl you were interested in."

"That just means that I was interested in you."

"My sweet naive boy," she sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I'm really sorry I never told you." They were both silent for a moment before she spoke again. "Are you okay?"

"My girlfriend made me a wonderful present and wanted me to be happy, of course I'm okay."

Marinette looked down at the ground. "You know what I mean."

"I'd rather not talk about it. Do you know what I want to talk about instead?"

She looked back up at him and shook her head.

"About the fact that you have the cutest little snores," he told her, smiling.

Marinette's mouth fell open. "Wh... what?" she sputtered. "I don't snore!"

"Yes you do. And they're _adorable_."

"Tikki!" she whispered, opening up her purse to look at the kwami. "I don't snore, do I?"

"Um, well..." Tikki started to say until Plagg popped his head out of Adrien's shirt and interrupted her.

"You snore, Marinette. Get over it," he said before disappearing.

Her mouth fell open again.

"It's okay," Adrien laughed. "Like I said, totally adorable."

She crossed her arms. "Well, you probably snore too."

"No, he doesn't," came a muffled voice from his shirt pocket.

Uncrossing her arms, she hunched over a little. "Of course you don't, you're perfect."

Adrien reached out and pulled her towards him. "I thought that I was _purr_ fect."

She smiled and put her hands around his neck, resting them on his scarf. "How could I _fur_ get?" she asked, pulling him into a kiss.

The couple continued their public display of affection until a blonde-haired girl walked past them.

"Seriously?" Chloé demanded, throwing her arms into the air as she made her way into the building.

************************************

Two. Now Adrien was down to two positive experiences with his father. A single day with Marinette gave him more than that.

He wished that there was a way to know for sure if his father loved him. Asking him would be pointless; of course he would say yes. That wouldn't prove anything.

When it was almost lunchtime, Adrien thought of something. A tiny nugget of an idea that planted itself in his brain. And it kept nagging at him. He tried to push it away, but it wasn't going anywhere.

It was a little risky, but it would tell him once and for all if his father actually cared about him or not.

The more he thought about it, the more determined he became. He finally decided that he would do it. All he needed was Marinette's help.

When it was time for their lunch hour, he pulled her aside. "I need to go somewhere," he said. "Will you cover for me?"

"Where do you need to go?" she asked.

"I... I need to go do something important."

"What do you need to do?" she asked, growing concerned.

"It's okay," he tried to assure her. "Everything will be fine."

His words did nothing to remove the fear from her eyes. "Adrien, please tell me what's going on."

"I'm sorry but I need to go talk to him. I'll explain everything later when I get back. Do you have your necklace with you?"

"It's in my purse. Why?"

"Good, stay here. Keep your necklace with you, but take off your earrings and hide them somewhere in the building, just in case. I know this sounds crazy, but I need you to trust me Princess."

She looked at him for a second before nodding her head. "I'll cover for you."

Adrien almost couldn't believe it. Marinette was going along with his request even though she had no idea what it entailed. She trusted him completely.

"I love you," he whispered, overcome by emotion.

She tilted her head slightly. He loved it when she did that. "I love you more."

Adrien gave her a sweet kiss. "I'll be back soon."


	31. An Unexpected Visitor and A Handshake

Nathalie was sitting at her desk in Gabriel's study when the doorbell rang. Checking the security monitor, her heart skipped a beat at seeing who was on the camera outside of the front gates.

She hesitantly pressed the intercom button. "May I help you?"

"Good afternoon," Chat Noir replied. "I was hoping to see Gabriel Agreste. I don't have an appointment."

Internal panic set in. "Just a minute, let me see if he's available," Nathalie said through the intercom. She quickly checked her computer. The GPS signal was still coming from the school.

Exhaling, she picked up her phone and pressed a button. After a few rings Gabriel answered. "What is it?"

"Sir, you need to get up here. Chat Noir is outside the gates and he wants to see you."

Gabriel didn't even respond, he simply disconnected the call. Less than a minute later, he was back in the study. "What does he want?"

"I don't know, but he's alone. Marinette is still at school," Nathalie explained.

Gabriel nodded. "Let him in."

"Please come in," she said through the intercom, hitting the button to open the gates. Then she rushed to the foyer to open the front door.

Gabriel was in his place on the stairs when he walked in. "Chat Noir, to what do we owe this great honor?" he asked, bowing slightly.

"Good afternoon, Mr Agreste. Thank you for seeing me on such short notice. I know how busy you are."

"It's not a problem at all. What can I help you with?"

"I was actually hoping to speak with you in private, if that's alright," Chat Noir said, glancing over at Nathalie.

"Of course, let's go to my study. Nathalie, I'll have you stay here."

She nodded as the two went into the adjoining room. Gabriel closed the door behind them.

Chat Noir walked over to his mother's painting and looked up at it. For a split second he wondered where the elevator to reach her was. But he couldn't get distracted, he was there on a mission. "What a stunning piece of artwork," he commented.

"What can I help you with?" Gabriel asked again, this time with slight irritation in his voice.

"Oh, I wanted to talk to you about Marinette Dupain-Cheng," he said, keeping his eyes on the painting.

Complete silence for a moment.

"My son's girlfriend. What about her?"

"She's a lovely girl, don't you think?" Chat Noir asked, turning to face him.

"Very lovely."

"I happened to run into her yesterday afternoon as my civilian self. She was working the counter at her parent's bakery and she was very excited to see me. And I was very excited that she was very excited. That was, of course, until she explained how her _boyfriend's_ father has been looking for someone with my exact description. And how he was very eager to find out my name and contact information."

"Yes," Gabriel said, trying to justify the request. "I'm looking for someone to model in my upcoming ad campaign."

"I already know the excuse that you gave her, Mr Agreste. She told me all about it. She's very sweet, isn't she?"

"Very," he agreed.

"As I was saying," Chat Noir continued. "While that excuse might have worked on her, I'm not really buying it. I mean, surely a famous designer such as yourself would have access to dozens, if not hundreds, of models that match that description. And yet, you ask Marinette to find someone for you. That's a little strange, don't you think?"

Gabriel remained silent as Chat Noir kept speaking.

"So I started thinking. First of all, why would Gabriel Agreste want to find me? And second of all, why would he ask the beautiful, wonderful Marinette of all people to help him? And then it finally hit me. There's only one reasonable explanation for everything." He finally stopped talking and simply smiled.

After a momentary pause Gabriel spoke. "And what would that be?"

Chat Noir chuckled. "That you're Hawk Moth, of course."

Gabriel clenched his jaw. "I think we're done here. I'll have to ask you to leave now."

"I'm not leaving," the superhero said, shaking his head.

"If you refuse to leave I'll have no choice but to call the police and have them escort you out," Gabriel threatened.

Now Chat Noir full-out laughed. "Oh Mr Agreste, I would love for you to call the police. And I would absolutely love to hear you explain to them why there's a butterfly garden in your basement."

Now Gabriel went completely pale.

"And even if you _miraculously_ came up with some legitimate excuse, you would still have to explain why your missing wife is down there."

His fists balled up in anger. "Don't you talk about my wife!" Gabriel shouted.

"Alright, alright," Chat Noir said, putting his hands up in a surrender motion. "Let's calm down. Why don't we just sit down and continue our conversation?"

"Why are you here?" he demanded, not moving from his spot.

"Well Hawk Moth... I mean, Mr Moth... er, Hawky? How should I refer to you?"

"Mr Agreste is fine," he replied through clenched teeth.

"Well Mr Agreste, I believe we can help each other."

As responses go, that one was completely unexpected. "How so?" Gabriel asked, not letting his guard down.

"As you must have already figured out, Marinette is Ladybug. I don't know _how_ you found out, but I don't really care. I've known her identity for about a month now. And since then I've been visiting her at her parent's bakery, hoping to win her affections. I'm sure that it's no surprise to you to find out that I'm madly in love with her."

Chat Noir continued. "Now, she's under the impression that you want our Miraculouses for some sinister reason. That you're after money, or power, or world domination. You know, typical villain stuff. I, however, believe that you have a more noble cause in mind."

He stopped speaking to look over at the painting of Emilie. Then he turned back. "Am I correct?"

Gabriel nodded.

"You see, for all our differences, you and I are actually quite similar. You want your wife back. I want Ladybug back. You can imagine my disappointment when I discovered that she started dating Adrien."

"What exactly are you suggesting?" Gabriel asked slowly.

"Well surely a powerful man like yourself can convince his own son to break up with his girlfriend."

He paused for a moment to let that sink in before speaking again. "Adrien will break up with Marinette, she'll be heartbroken, and I'll be there for her. Then after we start dating, I'll let you _borrow_ our Miraculouses so you can wake up your wife. When that's done you'll give them back. I mean, you won't have any need for them anymore. I'll allow you to keep the Butterfly and the Peacock Miraculouses. You and your lovely assistant continue to throw out a weak akuma or a sentimonster every once in a while... you know, to keep me and M'lady in business. And then everyone will be happy."

Gabriel didn't respond immediately. He took a minute to think things over. "And you won't ever inform the police about me?"

"Cat's honor," he said, holding up a hand. "As long as you don't ever tell Marinette about our agreement, of course. You see, I don't think you're a terrible person Mr Agreste. I just think that you really miss your wife."

"And what if I refuse? You would let her stay asleep forever?"

There was the kicker. Chat Noir almost smiled, relieved that he could now give his father a way out. "Of course not, I'm not a terrible person either. But I won't give you our Miraculouses. With your wealth and connections, and our access to and knowledge of magical entities, we'll figure out a way to help her. It just might take a little longer. But I promise you, we'll find a way to finally wake her up."

Another silence.

"By when do I need to give you my answer?" Gabriel asked.

"I'm in no rush Mr Agreste. Please, take all the time you need."

He nodded.

"Well," the superhero said, clapping his hands together. "I believe that will conclude our meeting today. I'll be in touch."

Gabriel extended his arm out to offer a handshake.

Chat Noir looked at his hand and then back up at his face. "You wouldn't mind shaking with your left hand, would you? I can't make things too easy," he added, winking.

The man narrowed his eyes as he extended out his other arm.

Chat Noir clasped his hand and they shook on it.

"Have a nice day, Mr Agreste," Chat Noir said before turning around and walking towards the door. Upon reaching it he put his hand on the handle and turned back. "Oh and by the way, all the contact information that I gave to Marinette yesterday is wrong. 'Griffin' is not even my real name. It's a nickname that a good friend made up for me."

Gabriel narrowed his eyes again.

"I figured I'd let you know now. I'd hate for you to waste your time and energy searching for me."

Once he was done speaking he opened the study door to reveal Nathalie standing right outside. It was obvious that she was trying to overhear the conversation. She jumped slightly from surprise and quickly moved out of the way.

"Good day, Miss Sancoeur," Chat Noir purred, walking past her.

At the front door, he put two fingers to his forehead and saluted before leaving.


	32. Two Birds, One Stone and A Dream

"Are you insane?" Marinette yelled at Adrien after hearing about what happened.

"It's okay," he insisted, trying to grab her hand.

She pulled it away from him. "He could have transformed and attacked you!"

"I know, I know. But I always have my cataclysm to protect me."

Marinette groaned. "You do realize that the only leverage that I had over your father is Griffin's contact information, right? And now he knows that it's not real. Now there's nothing stopping him from coming after me!"

"Of course there is. Chat Noir knows his identity. He won't risk going to prison for the rest of his life."

The girl sighed, trying to come up with another argument. But she had nothing. "Fine," she admitted. "You're right, this is a good plan."

"And it will prove once and for all if my father cares about me, or if he's only doing this for himself."

She nodded. "He does care about you and your happiness, you'll see."

"We will see," he said, moving up to her, smiling. "Alright if I kiss you now?"

"I guess I'll allow it," she joked. She happily accepted Adrien's lips on hers.

After their kiss, Adrien gazed into her eyes. "Can I come over again tonight?"

"Oh Kitty, I don't know. I feel like both of us haven't gotten a lot of sleep lately. Maybe we should both stay home and rest."

"Please Princess?" he asked, putting an exaggerated pout on his face.

She laughed at seeing him. "You're not going to accept 'no' as an answer, are you?"

"It's not my fault!" he insisted. "I want to hear your adorable snoring again."

Marinette's mouth fell open before she leaned back and jabbed him on the shoulder.

************************************

Adrien had his piano lesson immediately after school. As soon as his teacher left, he went down to the dining room to eat dinner. He ate all alone.

'Just two more hours,' he told himself. Then he would go visit Marinette and get to breathe in her sweet scent as he fell asleep next to her.

All he had to do was think about Marinette. Forget about everything else, just focus on her.

Unfortunately Adrien ran into his father on his way back to his bedroom. Gabriel was heading down the stairs as he was heading up.

Now for the performance to proceed. "Father, this is for you," Adrien said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a piece of paper. "Marinette asked me to give it to you. It's Griffin's contact information."

Gabriel reached out unenthusiastically and took the paper. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. Goodnight," Adrien said as he continued up the stairs. He almost made it to the top before his father called out after him.

"Adrien, come down to my study for a minute. I need to speak with you."

He paused for a moment before slowly turning around. "Can it wait until tomorrow? I wanted to get to bed. I have to wake up very early to meet with Marinette's father."

"I'm afraid it can't wait. Now come on," Gabriel replied, making his way to the study.

Adrien sighed and followed him.

"If you'll excuse us, Adrien and I need to speak in private," Gabriel said to Nathalie, who was sitting at her desk.

"Yes Sir," she said, getting up and leaving the room.

"Sit down," Gabriel demanded of his son. The boy complied. "I wanted to talk to you about your relationship with Marinette."

Adrien's heart sank. This couldn't be it, it had only been a couple of hours. His father couldn't have made his decision already.

"She's a lovely girl," Gabriel continued. "But I'm afraid that you two are just not right for each other. I think it's best if you end your relationship now before it goes on any further."

Rage started surging through Adrien's body. He couldn't believe that his father would actually do this, not when he had another way. Chat Noir had promised that they would help no matter what. "You realize that I'm in love with her, right?" he asked, trying to steady his voice.

"Oh Adrien, those are just fleeting emotions. You're too young to understand what real love is."

The boy nodded, but not in agreement. He nodded to keep himself from jumping up and punching his father in the face. "Remind me again, how old were you when you and Mom started dating?"

Gabriel clenched his jaw. "We're not talking about me and your mother right now. We're talking about you. Whether you like it or not you're an Agreste, and we have certain expectations to uphold. People like us are powerful, influential and important members of society, while people like Marinette are... not. The two of you are simply too different from each other, and your relationship is never going to last. It would be best for everyone if you end it now."

As Adrien listened to the end of Gabriel's argument, his anger only intensified. He was disgusted by the fact that he was related to this man. After a moment, Adrien gave his reply. "No."

His father narrowed his eyes and leaned towards him. "No?" he repeated.

"I'm not breaking up with Marinette. And you can't make me." He stood up and made his way to the door.

"Well, that's a shame," Gabriel muttered. "A talented girl like Marinette, she probably would have done so well in the fashion industry."

Adrien froze at hearing the words. His father couldn't possibly be implying what he thought he was. He turned to look back at him. "What?" he asked hesitantly.

"I was saying that it's a shame. She really had the potential to become a great designer. It's all very tragic. I mean, after the news breaks that she only started dating my son to get close to me, she'll get blacklisted from the industry. Her reputation will be destroyed and absolutely no one will agree to work with her."

Suddenly it felt like there was no air in the room. "You wouldn't," Adrien challenged.

"It's ultimately up to you what happens, Adrien. If you think that your relationship is more important than Marinette's happiness and her future, then by all means continue dating her. If not, then you know what you have to do."

He couldn't take it anymore. Adrien finally turned around and stormed out of the room, passing by Nathalie in the foyer. At seeing his distraught expression, her face fell.

Gabriel appeared at the study door. "You have until tomorrow night!" he barked at the boy.

After Adrien's bedroom door slammed shut behind him, Nathalie looked over at her boss. "Was that really necessary?"

"Come now Nathalie, look at it from my perspective. This way I can get rid of the baker's daughter _and_ get the Miraculouses. Two birds, one stone. And Adrien will be so happy to have his mother back that he won't even think about that girl anymore."

"I don't know, it seems like he's really in love with her..."

"Nonsense," Gabriel interrupted. "It's only a school-age crush. He'll get over her soon enough. And hopefully next time he decides to date someone he'll find a more appropriate choice. Now that's enough of this discussion, I need to get back to work," he added, closing the study door.

Nathalie sighed and looked back up to where Adrien had disappeared into his room.

************************************

A thump came from the roof as Marinette was putting her history textbook into her school bag. She knew that Adrien would be coming by but she didn't expect him this early.

"Marinette?" came a strained voice from outside.

She quickly ran up to her loft and opened the hatch. Seeing Chat Noir's tearful expression, her smile vanished. "What happened?" she asked, but he didn't answer. She moved out of the way as he climbed inside.

Once on her bed he immediately hugged her.

"What happened?" she repeated, afraid to hear his response.

"Claws in," he whispered, detransforming into Adrien. Plagg flew away, Tikki following behind so they could have some privacy.

"Adrien?" she tried again.

"My father made his decision."

Marinette hugged him tighter as tears came to her eyes. "No," she uttered, shaking her head. "No, this can't be."

He put his hand to her hair. "I tried to tell you. You wouldn't believe me."

"I'm sorry Adrien," she cried, the tears streaming down her cheeks. "I never thought... I'm so sorry."

They held onto each other for a minute. He cupped her face when he leaned back and wiped away some tears.

"I'm so sorry," she repeated, looking into his eyes.

He pressed his forehead against hers. "You're my Princess, you're not allowed to _ever_ be sorry."

She gave him a weak smile and nodded.

"He said that I have until tomorrow night to break up with you. And if I don't, then he'll make sure that you never become a designer," Adrien explained. "How could I do that to you?"

"Oh Adrien," she said, leaning back. "My chance to become a designer ended the moment your father found out that I'm Ladybug. He'll never let me succeed, no matter what you do."

He embraced her again, sobbing into her shoulder.

"It's okay," she insisted. "I'll find something else to do for a career. I'll just keep designing for fun like I do now. He can't ever take that away from me."

"But it's your dream," he argued.

She pushed him back so he would see her. "No, _you're_ my dream. As long as I have you, I don't care about anything else. Designing is not important, it's just lines and fabric and thread. And it'll never compare to you."

Adrien felt like crying again. But this time it wasn't from despair. The amount of love that he felt for Marinette in that moment was greater than anything he had ever imagined. He stared into her eyes, not daring to blink.

No matter what ever happened to him in his life, he would never ever forget how he felt there with her. The overwhelming, irrefutable, all-encompassing love that filled his heart.

Even if he told her that he loved her every second of every day, he still wouldn't be able to express the depth of his feelings. He and Marinette were made for each other. Two halves of a whole. A perfect pairing. There was simply no other way to describe it.

"Thank you Princess," he said, putting his hand to her cheek.

"You're welcome Kitty. Now come on, let's go to sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow."

"We do?" he asked.

Marinette nodded. "Yeah, I think it's time that we end this. Once and for all."


	33. A Cataclysm and A Finger Snap

Dawn broke on Saturday morning.

Adrien left his house super early. On his way out he passed by his father, who had been waiting for him in the foyer.

"Make the right choice," Gabriel said sternly as he went by.

Adrien didn't respond to his father. He didn't even look at him or acknowledge his existence. He simply walked straight to the front door and left.

************************************

A few blocks away, Marinette found her father in the bakery kitchen.

"Good morning sweetie!" Tom said, seeing his daughter. "I thought you might get up early today. Although, I'm not going to kid myself in thinking that you're here to see me. I know you're here because Adrien is coming over," he chuckled.

"Actually Papa, I wanted to let you know that Adrien isn't able to come over today. He texted me last night and told me. He wanted me to tell you that he's sorry for canceling."

Tom frowned. "Well that's too bad. I was looking forward to spending some time with him. Did his father change his mind about him coming over?"

She nodded.

"He's really tough on him, isn't he?"

"Yeah, he is," she replied.

"That's too bad," he repeated. "But sometimes parents are tough on their kids because they think that it's good for them. He probably does it out of love."

Marinette shook her head. "I used to think so, but now I'm not sure."

Tom went over and hugged his daughter before speaking again. "Well, you let Adrien know that he's welcome here anytime and that your mother and I will always be here if he needs anything."

"Thanks Papa."

"You're welcome sweetie. So what do you think? Do you want to help out your old man in the bakery this morning?"

"If it's okay with you, I think I'm going to go back to bed. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night."

"That's no problem at all. Go get some rest."

"I love you Papa," Marinette said, hugging him again.

"I love you too, sweetie."

After the hug, Marinette went back up to her room. She stuffed some pillows under the comforter on her bed before opening up the hatch.

Adrien was there waiting for her. He reached his hand down to help her climb out, which she accepted. Once she was on the balcony, he gave her a kiss.

"Why did you detransform?" she asked him.

"We have to do one thing before we go."

She looked at him, confused. "What do we have to do?"

He smiled. "We need to take our official couple picture."

A huge grin appeared on her face. "I would _love_ to do that."

Taking out his phone and unlocking it, Adrien held it up in front of them. Marinette happily leaned towards him and rested her head against his cheek. He wrapped his free arm around her.

"On three. One, two, three," he said as they both looked at the phone and smiled. After hitting the button Adrien moved it closer so they could check it.

"What do you think?"

"I think it's perfect, just like you," he answered, squeezing her with his arm and pressing a kiss against her hair. Then he put his phone away. "You ready, Princess?"

"I'm ready Kitty."

************************************

Nathalie was clearing Gabriel's breakfast plate from the dining table when the doorbell rang. She hurried to her desk in the study and checked the security monitor.

It was Chat Noir again.

After confirming that the GPS signal was coming from Marinette's house, Nathalie picked up her phone and called her boss. "Chat Noir is outside, and he's alone," she informed him before hanging up.

"Please come in," she said through the intercom, opening the gates with the press of a button.

Then she ran to the door and greeted him as he walked in. "Good morning."

"Good morning, Miss Sancoeur. I hope that now is a good time to speak with Mr Agreste."

"Yes it is," Gabriel replied for her, coming out of his study. "Although I must admit, I hadn't expected to see you again so soon."

"Well I was in the neighborhood so I figured that I'd swing by," Chat Noir said.

"Of course. Well, why don't we go to my study?"

"What a great idea. Miss Sancoeur, why don't you join us this time? After all, this concerns you as well."

She nodded but didn't move.

Chat Noir held out his arm, insisting that she go into the room before him. Reluctantly she followed Gabriel inside and took a spot along the wall. Then Chat Noir made his way inside the study, not bothering to close the door behind him.

"You'll be very pleased to hear that my son will be breaking up with Marinette," Gabriel said smiling. "By the end of today your Lady will be single again. Ready for you to sweep her off of her feet."

Chat Noir shook his head, looking down at the floor. "No Mr Agreste, I'm afraid that 'pleased' is not the emotion that I'm feeling right now."

Gabriel's genuine smile was replaced with a tight lipped one. "And why is that? Isn't that what you wanted?"

He looked over at him. "Do you _really_ believe that I wanted her to be heartbroken? She's the love of my life. Why would I want her to suffer?"

Nathalie glanced nervously between the two.

"Because that was the terms of our agreement," Gabriel growled. "We shook on it."

"Funny thing about handshakes, Mr Agreste. You traditionally need to shake with your right hand to make an agreement official."

A momentary silence.

"If we have no agreement then why shouldn't I just take your Miraculous right now?" Gabriel threatened. "We both have our Miraculouses so it's two against one. And after we take your ring you'll be unable to stop us from going over to Marinette's house to take her earrings."

He walked right up to Chat Noir before continuing. "I've already gotten rid of all the butterflies, so you'll have no proof of who I am. And by the time you get out of this house my wife will already be awake and healthy, so you won't have a case there either."

Gabriel lowered his eyebrows and squinted his eyes at the boy. "No one will believe anything you say. You won't even have your ring to prove that you're Chat Noir. And not even Ladybug knows your secret identity. So _please_ , give me one good reason why I shouldn't transform right now and take that ring off of your obnoxious finger?"

Chat Noir smiled. "I'll give you a good reason why, Mr Agreste. It's because of that little lady over there," he said, jutting his chin towards the door.

Gabriel swung his head around to find Ladybug standing in the doorway. He paled as she stepped towards them.

"I'm sorry to intrude Mr Agreste, Miss Sancoeur," she said, bowing slightly. "But this has gone on long enough. I think it's time that we all sit down and discuss our options."

He tried to regain his composure. "The only option you have, _Miss Dupain-Cheng_ , is to hand over your Miraculous."

"There's no point in threatening me, Mr Agreste. I'm well aware that you know my identity. And by now, you're well aware that I know your identities. But you were mistaken about one thing. I _do_ know who Chat Noir is."

"You do?" Gabriel asked slowly.

"Of course I do. Me and Griffin, we're very close. I'm even the one who gave him that nickname." She turned to look at Chat Noir. "You still like it, right?"

"I love it," he replied smiling. "Almost as much as I love you."

She smiled back at him.

"So this whole thing has been a setup?" Gabriel asked. "You never liked Adrien, you were just using him to come over here and spy on us?"

"What do you care if it was a setup?" Chat Noir interjected, suddenly getting angry. "You sold Adrien out the first chance you got. I gave you another option to save your wife but no, you still decided to betray your own kid. Forcing him to break up with his girlfriend even though you know he's in love with her. This morning you told him to make the right choice, but you can't seem to do the same."

Gabriel narrowed his eyes. "How do you know what I said to my son?"

"Isn't it obvious, Mr Agreste?" he replied, staring up at him. "I'm your son."

And suddenly it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Nathalie covered her mouth with her hands and her eyes grew wide.

After a minute Gabriel spoke. "You're not Adrien," he growled.

"Oh yes I am. Like you told me last night, I'm an Agreste whether I like it or not."

His father's face dropped.

Nathalie looked completely distraught. "I'm so sorry Adrien," she uttered, tears coming to her eyes.

Chat Noir glared at his father. "Now if you don't mind, tell me how I can get downstairs so I can see my mother."

The man glared back. "Give me your ring and your girlfriend's earrings and we'll go wake her up."

Overcome with anger, Chat Noir shook his head. "You'll never change. And I'm done giving you chances." He lifted his arm up into the air. "Cataclysm!" he yelled, causing black spots of destructive energy to form around his hand.

"Adrien," Ladybug cried, clearly upset by the turn of events. This was _not_ the plan.

Chat Noir ignored her call. "Tell me!" he shouted.

If looks could kill, then Gabriel would have murdered his son right then and there. "I guess we'll have to do this the hard way then," he said slowly. Nooroo, dark wings rise!"

With a flash of purple light he transformed into Hawk Moth. He spun his cane around in his hand before pointing it at Chat Noir. But then he stopped and looked over at Nathalie. "What are you waiting for?" he demanded.

She shook her head. "I'm not going to fight against Adrien," she said quietly.

Hawk Moth snarled at her. "Fine, I'll handle this myself." He turned back to Chat Noir. "What are you going to do?" he asked. "Cataclysm your own father?"

"Of course not. I'm not a monster like you," he replied coldly. Then he reached down and pressed his hand against the tile floor. Cracks appeared in a three meter diameter around them before the ground disintegrating into rubble.

Both he and Hawk Moth fell to the repository beneath them.

Ladybug ran over and looked down to the darkened room. Once she saw that they landed on a walkway below, she looked back up and made eye contact with Nathalie. "Stay here," she told her.

Nathalie nodded. "I'm sorry Marinette," she whispered.

Ladybug nodded back before grabbing her yo-yo and jumping down to the repository. When she landed it took a second for her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting.

She was on a suspended walkway in the middle of the room, with water all around. Ahead of her on a circular platform were Chat Noir and Hawk Moth. She immediately ran over but stopped at seeing the cryogenic pod next to them. She recognized the woman lying inside from her photographs.

"You're choosing your girlfriend over your own mother!" Hawk Moth screamed at Chat Noir.

"No," he argued, his face covered in tears. Despair had overtaken his anger once he found Emilie. "We'll find another way to bring her back."

"Don't be ridiculous Adrien! There's no other way. Just give me your ring and we'll wake her up right now. We'll finally be a family again. Everything that I've done, I've done for us... for you. So you can have your mother back."

"No, you've done this for yourself. You don't care about me."

"Of course I do Adrien. I'm your father. Now this has been going on too long already. Hand it over right now!" Hawk Moth demanded, extending out his hand.

Chat Noir tearfully looked at Ladybug.

"Adrien," she whispered, her eyes filling with tears as well.

They stayed in each other's gaze for a moment before he looked back at his father and shook his head.

Hawk Moth slowly lowered his hand down. "This is very, very disappointing," he said quietly. "What would your mother think?"

Chat Noir hung his head as the tears kept falling.

"Come on, Adrien. Let's get out of here," Ladybug said strained, reaching out towards him.

He walked over and grabbed her hand. "I'm sorry Father," he whimpered.

Hawk Moth shook his head. "Not as sorry as I am. I'm truly sorry about this Adrien, but you leave me no choice." He popped open the top of his cane, releasing the black butterfly from within.

Ladybug's heart stopped when she saw it.

With a flutter of its wings, the akuma flew towards its target.

She didn't think that it was possible. She never imagined that Hawk Moth would knowingly akumatize his own son. Turning her head, she looked at Chat Noir. A vision of two ice-blue eyes flashed before her as he turned to look at her. She couldn't let that happen again.

Ladybug quickly hooked her leg around his knee and pushed her forearms into his chest. Losing his balance, Chat Noir fell backwards and hit the ground. He stared up at her in shock as she leaned over him.

"I'm sorry Kitty," she whispered before grabbing his hand and pulling his ring off.

He immediately detransformed into Adrien.

A few meters away Hawk Moth had a triumphant expression on his face at watching what was happening. He snapped his fingers, turning the akuma back into a regular white butterfly.

Ladybug let out a relieved sob as she clutched the ring to her chest.

"Well Miss Dupain-Cheng, it's over. Time to give me your Miraculous."

She stood up and looked over at him with tears in her eyes. "I'll never give you my Miraculous," she whispered, sliding the ring onto her finger. Plagg appeared next to her.

Hawk Moth snarled at her reply and started walking towards them.

Ladybug stretched her arms out to her sides, her palms facing upward. "Plagg, Tikki, unify!" she said before clasping her hands together in front of her and interlocking her fingers.

All of a sudden everything went black.


	34. Confusing Whispers, A Nightingale and An Ending

Complete darkness.

Then drops of light shimmering down from above, illuminating the space around her.

Complete silence.

Then the delicate sound of a faint breeze passing by her ears.

For a moment, Ladybug didn't understand what was happening. She felt like she was levitating, but her feet were still on the floor. She was still in the repository.

Looking around she saw Hawk Moth a few meters away and Adrien was on the floor next to her. But neither of them were moving. Not even the white butterfly was flapping its wings. Everything around her was perfectly still.

Glancing down she noticed that her costume was different. It was still red with black spots, but there was a panel of black fabric going down the sides. Her arms and hands were black too. And instead of her usual pigtails, her hair was in a long braid with a red ribbon tied through the length of it. She reached up to discover two cat ears on her head.

What was going on? Why was everything frozen? This never happened before when she unified two kwamis. She could feel energy radiating from every cell in her body.

Hearing a faint noise behind her, Ladybug spun around. There was nothing there. Then another noise from her side, like a whisper. Nothing there either. Then more whispers coming from all around her.

She listened but she couldn't make out what they were saying. Most of them weren't even in French, but an array of other languages.

More and more whispers as she struggled to understand.

Then there was a singular clear question. "Marinette, what are you doing?"

Her eyes widened as she recognized the voice. "Master Fu?" she asked, tears stinging her eyes.

"Yes Marinette, it's me," Fu replied.

"I don't understand," she said, shaking her head. "How are you here?"

"I'm not really here. A part of me was bound to my Miraculous the first time I used it. Those other voices that you hear are previous holders too. As long as the Miraculouses exist, a piece of us will always be here, all around you. You can only hear us now because you unified Plagg and Tikki. You have the ultimate power, the power of creation and destruction, and you're able to do things that no other Miraculous holder can do."

"But why has time stopped?"

"It hasn't stopped. You're just moving so fast that it seems like everything else is staying still. It's one of your special abilities," he explained.

"I don't want these powers," she insisted. "I only wanted to protect Adrien from his father." Her tears were overwhelming her eyes. "Gabriel Agreste is Hawk Moth. I can't believe that he would actually try to akumatize his own son. The last time that happened Adrien killed everyone and destroyed Paris. That can't happen again."

"Well it seems as though you have the chance to finally defeat Hawk Moth now. Use this opportunity to take his Miraculous away from him."

She shook her head. "Even if I take it away, he won't stop. He knows that it's me and Adrien and he'll keep coming after us any way that he can. Adrien will never be safe," she said, a tear falling down her cheek. "His father will torture him with guilt every chance that he gets. He'll never give up, not until he gets what he wants."

"What does he want?" Fu asked.

"He wants his wife, Adrien's mother, to wake up. But he can't get it, not on his own." Ladybug stared ahead, not really seeing anything. "It's like that story 'The Nightingale and the Rose.' The student couldn't find the rose on his own because his love wasn't genuine. Only the nightingale's love was real."

"What are you saying, Marinette?"

Another tear fell down her cheek. "The nightingale believed in true love. And true love is possible, but only if sacrifices are made," she said, repeating the closing line from her presentation. "Hawk Moth can't get what he wants on his own, but I can get it for him. I've already combined the two Miraculouses."

The whispers got louder.

"Making an ultimate wish is not a decision to make lightly," Fu warned her. "There will be a terrible price to pay. The world might not be the same after this."

"If Adrien gets akumatized again there won't be any world left," she argued gently.

"I see. Are you sure that you know what you're doing?"

"I'm doing my job," she replied. "I'm protecting Paris."

"And you're willing to accept the consequences?"

"Yes," Ladybug said, barely at a whisper.

"Very well," Fu murmured. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng, are you ready?"

She looked around, trying to keep the tears at bay. "Just one last thing." Kneeling down, she leaned over Adrien and looked into his eyes. Then she pressed her lips against his. When she pulled back she rubbed her thumb across his cheek. "I love you Kitty. I love you, I love you, I love you. No matter what happens, don't ever lose that beautiful heart of yours," she whispered before kissing him again.

After a moment she wiped away her tears and stood back up. "I'm ready Master."

"You need to say the incantation first. After that, you make your wish. Good luck, Marinette."

She nodded and closed her eyes. The whispers faded away. All she could hear was her breathing.

The words came to her without thinking. They rolled off her tongue like she had said them a thousand times before. When she was done with the incantation she opened her eyes. She was slightly startled when she realized that she wasn't in the repository anymore.

Marinette was on the front steps of her school. Raindrops fell on her head as she looked at the blonde-haired boy standing in front of her, holding an umbrella out half way between them. Thunder clapped in the distance. After a moment she slowly reached out and grabbed the umbrella from his hand.

Adrien smiled at her. "What's your wish Princess?"

She smiled back at him through the tears. "I wish for the gift of health and restoration."

He nodded at her and everything went black.

************************************

Chat Noir walked over and grabbed Ladybug's hand. "I'm sorry Father," he whimpered.

Hawk Moth shook his head. "Not as sorry as I am. I'm truly sorry about this Adrien, but you leave me no choice." He popped open the top of his cane, releasing the black butterfly from within.

Chat Noir's heart stopped when he saw it.

With a flutter of its wings, it flew towards its target. Him.

Turning his head, he looked at Ladybug.

Suddenly she hooked her leg around his knee and pushed her forearms into his chest. Losing his balance he fell backwards and hit the ground. He stared up at her in shock as she leaned over him.

"I'm sorry Kitty," she whispered before grabbing his hand and pulling his ring off.

He immediately detransformed into Adrien. Looking up at her, he didn't understand what she was doing. Not until he heard a snap and saw the akuma turn back into a regular white butterfly.

She had saved him. She had prevented him from getting akumatized again.

"Well Miss Dupain-Cheng, it's over. Time to give me your Miraculous."

Adrien felt a wave of panic. He was disarmed now, unable to protect Marinette from his father.

Ladybug stood up and looked over at Hawk Moth with tears in her eyes. "I'll never give you my Miraculous," she whispered, sliding the ring onto her finger. Plagg appeared next to her.

Hawk Moth snarled at her reply and started walking towards them.

Ladybug stretched her arms out to her sides, her palms facing upward. "Plagg, Tikki, unify!" she said before clasping her hands together in front of her and interlocking her fingers.

Adrien tried to get up but it was too late. Both he and Hawk Moth were knocked backwards as a loud explosive noise rippled through the room.

His ears ringing, he picked his head up from the floor and saw... Ladybug? But no, not exactly. Her costume was different. Before he even had time to think about what happened she detransformed into Marinette and collapsed. Her body hit the floor with a thump.

Adrien immediately crawled over to her side. Tikki and Plagg were released from their Miraculouses and they fell to the floor, unable to move from exhaustion. Marinette's earrings turned red and black, and her ring turned black and green as she lay motionless.

"Marinette?" he whispered, leaning over her.

She didn't respond.

"Marinette?" he tried again, pushing the hair away from her eyes.

By now Hawk Moth had gotten up and walked over to them.

Noticing his presence, Adrien looked up at him. "What did you do to her?" he cried out.

He shook his head. "Nothing. This wasn't me."

Looking back at Marinette, Adrien gasped. Her skin started glowing a golden hue, the color slowly getting deeper. "What?" he asked, confused.

Then golden rays of light radiated from her body, swirling into the air above her. More and more rays came streaming out. After a few seconds one last ray radiated from her chest. When it left her body her skin turned back to its normal complexion.

The rays continued swirling in the air until they finally combined together into a floating starburst of light.

"Marinette," came a weak voice from the floor.

Adrien looked down at Tikki, who was attempting to reach the girl. "What happened?" he asked the kwami desperately.

"She... made a wish..." Tikki gasped out.

His mouth fell open. "No, she wouldn't do that. She knows it's too dangerous." He leaned back over the girl and put his hand to her cheek. Her skin was ice cold. "No," he begged, tears coming to his eyes. Grabbing her hand, he felt for a pulse. There wasn't one there.

Hawk Moth wasn't paying attention to Adrien's frantic cries, his gaze was locked on the starburst floating above them. He reached out and grabbed it from the air. "Finally," he whispered to himself, the biggest, most sincere smile lighting up his face. "Adrien," he said louder, not taking his eyes off of the light. "Come on, we can finally wake your mother up!" He hurried over to the cryogenic pod, cradling the starburst in his hands. When he got there he pressed the button to open the glass panel. "Adrien, this is..." he trailed off, noticing that his son hadn't followed him.

Adrien was still leaning over Marinette, pressing his forehead against hers, and crying uncontrollably.

And suddenly the overwhelming wave of emotions that were coming from Adrien reached Hawk Moth. It was a feeling that he had only felt once before. It was the exact same thing that he felt when he found Emilie unconscious in their bedroom.

The worst moment of his life. He carried that feeling around in his heart every day since, unable to forget it.

And there was Adrien, feeling the exact same way. Desperately wishing that he could do something for Marinette. To bring her back to him.

"I'm so sorry Princess," Adrien sobbed as he pressed against her. "I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you. I love you, I love you, I love you," he whispered, his whole body shaking. After a minute of holding her, he moved back to look at her face. "Marinette," he cried. "My beautiful Princess. Why did you do this?"

"Adrien," Gabriel said softly.

The boy looked up, surprised to see his father looking back at him instead of Hawk Moth. He was kneeling down next to Marinette across from him.

"Don't you touch her," Adrien hissed.

Gabriel shook his head. "I won't." Then he extended his arm and held the starburst out to him.

Adrien glanced between the light and his father. After a moment he slowly reached out and grabbed it.

Gabriel nodded and stood up. He started to turn but stopped and looked back. "No matter what happens, don't ever let yourself become the villain of your own story."

When he finished speaking, he turned and walked away.

Adrien looked down at the starburst in his hand. It was pulsating like a heartbeat.

Without hesitating he pushed the starburst into Marinette's chest and her skin started glowing again. It glowed brighter and brighter until it faded away completely.

"Please," Adrien begged, leaning over her and putting his hand to her face. "Please Marinette."

At his touch she opened her eyes.

They stared at each other for a moment.

"Adrien?" she whispered.

"Marinette," he whispered back, not trying to stop the tears from streaming out.

She reached her hand up and wiped his cheek. "What happened?"

"You made a wish, don't you remember?"

Her face scrunched up as she thought back. After a second she nodded. "I remember. Is your mom awake?" she asked hopefully.

Adrien shook his head. "No, she's not."

She shook her head, confused. "Why not? I made the wish so your father could wake her up."

"He didn't wake her up. He let me wake you up instead."

"I... I don't understand."

"I almost lost you forever," he explained to her.

"But that doesn't make any sense. Why would your father do that? He would never choose me over your mother. Why would he let _you_ use the wish?"

"I don't know," he replied. "I guess it's because... it's because..." He stopped and looked over at his father.

Gabriel was standing next to the cryogenic pod, staring down at his wife.

Adrien looked back at Marinette. "Because he loves me."

After a moment a smile slowly grew across her face. "Is right now a completely horrible time to say 'I told you so?'"

He nodded and smiled through the tears. "Yeah, it is."

She nodded back. "Okay, I won't say it then."

"Okay," he said, caressing her cheek.

They gazed at each other for another minute.

"Will you kiss me now?" Marinette finally asked.

Adrien smiled brighter. "Anything you say, Princess," he whispered before leaning in and kissing her.


	35. Epilogue

Marinette skipped over a puddle as she hurried to the restaurant. She was running late for her and Adrien's date. And it wasn't just any old date, it was to celebrate their five year anniversary. It had been five whole years since their first date in the park near their school.

Reaching the building front, she shook her black umbrella and closed it up as she got under the porch.

Adrien was there waiting for her. He smiled when he saw her.

"I'm sorry I'm late," she said, going up and giving him a quick kiss. "I had to finish uploading some designs for a project."

"Should I be worried about this project of yours?" he teased his girlfriend.

"It's not _that_ type of project," she groaned.

"I know, I'm just messing with you."

She smiled. "Come on, let's get inside. I'm starving."

"Just one second," he said, grabbing her hand so she couldn't walk away. "I wanted to talk to you about something first."

"Okay, what do you want to talk about, Kitty?"

He smiled wider. "I love it when you call me that. Although, I love it when you call me Adrien too. I love it when you look at me. I love it when you smile. I love everything that you do, and everything about you. In fact, I love you so much that I want to ask you something."

Taking a step back he kneeled down on one knee and held out a jewelry box towards her.

Marinette's eyes widened at seeing the diamond ring inside.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I love you. First you were M'lady, then you were my Princess. And now I want to ask you, would you please do me the honor of becoming my Queen?"

Tears quickly came to her eyes. "Yes," she replied simply, nodding her head.

Adrien stood and wrapped her up, kissing her passionately.

"I love you Adrien," she said when they separated.

"That was absolutely beautiful," Tikki squealed, popping her head out of Marinette's purse.

"Yeah, not bad, kid," Plagg added from inside his shirt. "Even better than you practiced."

The girl smiled at Adrien. "You practiced?"

"Well of course I did. I wanted it to be perfect for you. Here, take your ring," he said excitedly, handing her the box.

She removed the ring and slid it on her finger. It fit perfectly. "It's gorgeous!"

"You like it?" he asked.

"I love it," she replied. "Almost as much as I love you."

"I'm really glad. My mom helped me pick it out, you know."

"She did?"

"Yeah. I was torn between two different designs for the ring and I couldn't decide. Then I went to visit her headstone and I started talking about them. When I described this one a gust of wind blew past me. I think that was her telling me that this was the right one."

"Well your mom has very good taste, I absolutely love it. Do you want to go visit her now and tell her the news?"

"Let's eat first," he suggested. "You said that you were starving."

"No, it's okay. This is more important."

"Don't be ridiculous, we're already here. It'll be quick."

"Alright," she said, giving in. She held her hand up to look at her ring as Adrien opened the door for her to walk inside the restaurant. "My parents are going to _freak out_ when they find out about this," she laughed.

Walking inside, she stopped suddenly at seeing a wall of people in front of her. All of her friends and family were there. Everyone broke into cheers at seeing the couple.

"Wh... what's going on?" Marinette asked as her mother ran up and hugged her.

"What do you think?" Sabine replied. "This is your engagement party!"

"Engagement party?" she repeated, turning to look at Adrien. "What if I had said 'no'?"

"Oh come on, sweetie," Sabine answered for him. "Like you would _ever_ say 'no' to Adrien's proposal."

The girl sighed slightly. "Yeah, you're right."

Tom came over to them. "Now Marinette, we need to talk about something," he said sternly.

She looked up at him, uncertainly.

"Sabine and I need you to promise us that you'll take care of our son," he said, hooking his arm around Adrien's neck and ruffling his hair.

Marinette laughed. "I promise, Papa."

"Good," he responded, letting go of Adrien.

He laughed too. "Thanks Tom, I think we'll be very happy together. After all, we're a _batch_ made in heaven!"

Marinette was about to respond but was pulled away by Nino and Alya.

"Congrats girl!" Alya shouted, giving her a big hug. "Are you pinching yourself right now?"

"Yeah, I can't believe it. I was so surprised."

"Well I can't believe that you two have been going out for five years. Where has the time gone?"

"Has it really been five years already?" Nino asked.

"Of course, they started dating at the beginning of my second year of school," Alya reminded him.

"Huh, you're right babe. That was way back when Hawk Moth was still around."

Marinette's face fell at the mention of the supervillain.

"That's right!" Alya declared. "That was right around the time that he disappeared. Boy, was _that_ a crazy time. I mean, a guy used to terrorize the city with butterflies. There's no way that actually happened."

"I still think that he died," Nino continued.

"Uh uh," Alya argued back. "He wasn't that old. I bet that he got arrested for something else."

"Alya," Marinette said, trying to change the subject. "Did you see my ring?" She held up her hand so Alya could see it.

Her mouth fell wide open. "Holy crap! Look at that rock! How can you even lift your arm up? That diamond makes mine look like a grain of sand."

"Hey!" Nino protested. "You said that you loved yours. Besides, you have to keep in mind that not all of us are famous supermodels that make tons of money."

"Babe, you know that I love my grain of sand," Alya said before kissing him. "Because _you_ gave it to me."

Marinette was pulled away from them by her other friends from lycée.

"Congrats Marinette," Alix told her. "I have a _really_ good feeling about you two. Something tells me that you're going to have a happy life together."

Then she spoke with her grandparents. "Oh Marinetta, you are going to be the most beautiful bride!" her grandmother gushed.

Next, her university friends embraced her. After talking with them she turned to head back over to Adrien. But instead she bumped right into the person standing behind her.

She looked up to meet the gaze of the opposing man.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng, I offer my congratulations."

After a momentary pause, she responded. "Thank you, Mr Agreste." Out of the corner of her eye she could see Adrien talking with his aunt. His face fell at noticing their interaction.

"May I?" Gabriel asked, gesturing down at her hand.

She slowly raised her arm to show him the ring on her finger.

"How beautiful," he commented. "I saw the sketches of the design from the jeweler, but I never got the chance to see the finished product."

"You saw the sketches?" she asked, confused.

"Yes. At my suggestion Adrien had our family jeweler design and make your ring. He's obviously quite talented. He even made some pieces for Emilie in the past."

"I see," Marinette murmured, unsure of what else to say.

"And speaking of talented, Audrey has shown me several of the designs that you submitted to her. I have to say that I'm quite impressed with your work. Are you sure that you won't reconsider my offer? The Gabriel Agreste brand could certainly use a talent like yours."

"That's very kind of you to say, Mr Agreste. But I'm fine where I am now."

"Of course," he said, unsurprised by her response. "Well, please let me know if you ever change your mind."

Adrien walked up to them. "What's going on over here?" he asked.

"Just talking fashion," Gabriel explained.

He nodded. "You don't mind if I borrow my fiancée for a minute, do you?" he asked his father.

"Not at all," the man replied. "I must be going anyway. Congratulations again, and I hope that you two have a pleasant evening."

"Thank you, Mr Agreste," Marinette said as he walked away.

Once they were alone Arien looked at her. "Everything okay?"

She nodded and smiled. "Everything's fine," she said before kissing him.

************************************

The first thing that Gabriel Agreste did when he arrived home was go straight to his study.

"If you'll excuse me, Nathalie," he said to his assistant.

She nodded and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Gabriel walked over to the painting of his wife. He thought back to the last few years as he stared up at it.

After Adrien used the ultimate wish to bring Marinette back to life, Gabriel and Nathalie gave up their Miraculouses in exchange for their help. The four of them focused their efforts on finding a way to wake Emilie. But after almost two years of trying and failing, they finally had to give up.

After a heated debate, Gabriel and Adrien agreed to stop prolonging her life artificially.

Gabriel bribed the groundskeeper at a local cemetery and they had a private funeral for her. They couldn't put her real name on the headstone so they came up with the anagram of Elise Remigate.

Then when Adrien turned eighteen he signed with a modeling agency and eventually moved into his own apartment. His father didn't fight it.

And now Adrien and Marinette were engaged to be married. It would undoubtedly make the local news, and possibly the national news. Gabriel's usual scowl intensified at the thought.

Turning around he went over to his work computer. Pulling up a program, he checked the GPS signal. It was coming from the cemetery. They must have gone there after the party.

Marinette stopped wearing the old tracking device a long time ago. She either figured out what it was, or she simply stopped wearing the necklace.

Either way, she would never trust another present that he gave her. So instead, he let Adrien unknowingly do the dirty work for him.

After being offered a very generous bonus, their jeweler happily added an extra component to Marinette's engagement ring. It was simply amazing how small they made tracking devices these days.

Closing the program on the computer, Gabriel checked his watch. He had time.

He turned around and walked back over to Emilie's painting. Pressing the hidden buttons on the canvas, the elevator lowered him down to the repository.

The cryogenic pod was gone from its place on the platform, as were the plants that surrounded it.

But he didn't even look in that direction. Instead he went to the railing on the side of the walkway and hit a button.

Bubbles formed on the surface of the water as a rectangular structure was raised. Breaking the surface, the cryogenic pod eventually came to a stop.

Gabriel smiled as he looked at his wife inside. "My lovely Emilie, I come with some news today. Adrien proposed to his girlfriend and is now engaged. I'm sure you would be very proud of the young man that he has become. He misses you dearly, as do I, but hopefully we will all be reunited soon."

He put one hand to the glass as he continued. "I'm so sorry that I failed you last time, but I just couldn't let Adrien suffer the same fate that I suffered. But don't worry, the new plan is in motion now. All we need to do is track down the Butterfly Miraculous again. And I promise you this time I will not fail. I will never stop fighting for you, no matter what..."

His phone rang, interrupting him.

"Yes?" he answered.

"Sir, your seven o'clock appointment is here," Nathalie told him through the phone.

"I'll be right there," he replied before disconnecting.

Gabriel looked back at Emilie. "I'm sorry, my love, but I must go now. I promise that I'll visit you tomorrow."

He pressed the button again and the cryogenic pod was swallowed up by the water as it lowered back down to its hidden spot.

After taking the elevator to his study, Gabriel walked to the door and opened it.

His eyes landed on the redhead in the foyer. "Miss Rossi, how nice to see you again. Please come in."

Lila smiled and quickly went inside the room. Ignoring the disapproving look from Nathalie, Gabriel closed the door.


End file.
